I am very curious, will Titan Samples have any impact in the revised system?Greetings Commanders!
Following player feedback and internal reviews of the Thargoid War and Titan progression, we are making a number of significant changes.
These changes are designed to make the war more accessible, and ensure that every contribution at any time feels valuable.
These changes will take effect with the release of 18.06 on Tuesday 28th May.
Release Schedule
Please note that these times are subject to change.
- 08:00 BST - Live/4.0 Servers offline for update
- 12:00 BST - Servers Online and Update available
War Contribution & Bounty Changes
Whilst numerous gameplay options are available to contribute to the war effort, certain gameplay loops have proven more efficient than others - with scout sampling a clear outlier.
To ensure that all types of gameplay are impactful on the war, every gameplay action has been reviewed; Combat in particular should now be a much more viable way to beat back the Thargoid threat.
System Difficulty Changes
- War contribution values have been rebalanced for all actions and the following actions have received significant boosts:
- All combat actions (e.g. destroying interceptors and Anti Xeno Combat Zones)
- Hunting Orthrus in alert systems
- Spire sabotage actions
- All mission types
- All rescue operations
- Combat bonds have been adjusted for the following Thargoid ships:
- Cyclops 6,500,000 → 8,000,000
- Basilisk 20,000,000 → 24,000,000
- Medusa 34,000,000 → 40,000,000
- Hydra 50,000,000 → 60,000,000
- Orthrus 40,000,000 → 15,000,000
Previously, system difficulty became exponentially higher the closer a system is to a Titan, so systems very close to Titans could be extremely challenging to take.
This often made it very difficult to weaken the Titan to a highly vulnerable state by taking those last controlled systems.
This change aims to ensure that system difficulty remains consistent, and additionally, that all systems can be contested without Spire assistance or stockpiling samples.
Spire Changes
- System difficulty is now linear with respect to distance from a Titan
- All system scores have been re-balanced using the new war contribution values
View attachment 393620
Spires are highly valuable tools to be used against the Thargoids, as each war effort action within a spire system also has an effect on the 10 systems furthest away from the associated Titan - this is called "spread pushback".
Significant changes have been made to enable new strategies via more dynamic spread pushback mechanics.
Counterstrike/AXCZ Changes
- Spread pushback targeting is now dynamic
- For example, if any of the furthest 10 systems hit 100%, the titan will now start to affect the 11th system, then the 12th, and so on - without waiting for the Thursday turn
- Spread pushback capping has been reworked
- Previously, spread pushback would only apply to a system under 85% progress
- Spread pushback is now treated as an 85% pushback allocation per system
- The hard cap at 85% progress no longer applies
- For example: A system could already be at 15% progress via in-system activity; the remaining 85% could be completed by spread pushback.
- All contributions within a spire system have been retuned
- Fully taking a spire system will always result in spread pushback to the equivalent of 85% of 10 systems
- Activity after a spire system has hit 100% will not result in additional spread pushback
- Spread pushback no longer applies to the spire system itself
- Spire systems no longer regenerate on each weekly tick
View attachment 393621
Counterstrike systems offer a variety of gameplay options to fight the Thargoids. To better synergise with Spire mechanics, improvements to the Counterstrike marking rules have been made.
Titan Vulnerability Changes
- Counterstrike system marking has been partially reworked
- The 10 furthest controlled systems from a Titan are now marked as counterstrike, regardless of direction
- The furthest spire system from a Titan is now marked as counterstrike
- The above changes are in addition to the existing counterstrike marking system, which remains in place
- Additionally, Anti Xeno Combat Zones now spawn in all Thargoid controlled systems
- These changes only apply to the Titan with the fewest controlled systems
- In the event 2 Titans have the same number of controlled systems, both will follow this new ruleset. Choose wisely, Commanders.
Previously, Titan vulnerability operated on a curve - the less systems a Titan controlled, the more damage it would take from players hitting the core.
Titan vulnerability has been reworked to two phase system. It will now always be clear when a Titan has been made vulnerable, and therefore ready for a final assault.
- Titan vulnerability is now a two tier system:
- At 3 controlled systems or below, the Titan will be vulnerable to attack
- At 4 or above controlled systems, the Titan will take almost no damage from attacks
- Inbox messages and the galaxy map have been adjusted to this new system
- Rules for obtaining Titan rewards are unchanged
These changes will enable you to develop new stratagems in defeating the Thargoid threat, and be assured that every action is contributing to the war effort.
We will be closely monitoring the results of these changes, and will make further adjustments as required.
5 Titans still remain active and a threat to the galaxy. If you have yet to engage the Thargoids then now is the time to join the fight! Jump in now with the AX Combat Jumpstart Alliance Chieftain!
Issue Tracker:
Bugs/Adjustments
- Fixed an issue where context menus were not working with HOTAS (Issue ID 64078)
- Fixed a soft lock that could occur when being teleported to carrier seats from a teammate's hangar, but not aboard their ship
Elite Dangerous | Update 18.06 | Thargoid War overhaul |Tuesday 28 May 2024
- Thread starter Phil W
- Start date
I am very curious, will Titan Samples have any impact in the revised system?
And you also need to read the description backwards, seeing the changes what will be, analyze and conclude as it was.
For example :
Using the example of Titan INDRA, many got new guardian weapons and tried them on Titan. It was a long flight to HADAD and they did it on INDRA.
As a result of which they slightly damaged the INDRA. I posted on the forum but was told it was just a mistake.
In the words of the developers:
Thus, I think if we don't do the pointless slashing of fleeing Orfs for credits now, and all pile on INDRA, we can kill him. Only 3 days left.
Or at least damage him badly.
These are just my thought
For example :
Using the example of Titan INDRA, many got new guardian weapons and tried them on Titan. It was a long flight to HADAD and they did it on INDRA.
As a result of which they slightly damaged the INDRA. I posted on the forum but was told it was just a mistake.
In the words of the developers:
They show it's not a mistake !
Thus, I think if we don't do the pointless slashing of fleeing Orfs for credits now, and all pile on INDRA, we can kill him. Only 3 days left.
Or at least damage him badly.
These are just my thought
I think you've mistranslated that quote.
"The less systems a Titan controlled, the more damage it would take"
Hadad controlled 2 systems. Indra controls 117. 2 is less than 117, so Hadad takes more damage than Indra from the same attacks.
I hear you, but that's not what I'm writing about.
The point is that until the patch 18.06 any Titan still takes damage when attacking the core.
I mean, if everyone piles on the INDRA, they can punch it.
After 18.06 (Tuesday) until we leave controlled systems less than 3 can not even try to break through the Titan.
I don't know if I'm making myself clear.
UPD. Do you see the damage to INDRA on the map ? It's not a mistake, it's a consequence of the guards' weapons test on Titan !
But it doesn't take much damage. If everyone piles on ... maybe Indra takes a few percent of extra damage before Tuesday. That will hardly matter in the long run.
Remember that people have been attacking Indra for the last 3 months and have only done 1.4% damage to its first heart as a result.
Didn't we go through this when Oya spammed alerts?
It was a random bunch of people. When I brought it to my attention, I was told it was not a planned target and there were only people there who were not aware of it.
The bulk of the AH community was chiseling spires etc at this time, and when INDRA already had damage at that time HADAD to be full at all.
But I'm not insisting, just pointing out that fact.
Clearing to reach Titan Hadad was done because the clearance there is much, much easier! A petty amount of Titan damage which saves a few minutes once exposed is not a reason to overlook a pristine Titan which we can expose and destroy with a fraction of the time and effort.
That said, the general popularity around a Titan is a reason to target it next! Everyone has been very good in alternating between targets which are popular and targets which are easier, and eyeing Titan Indra next is a quite reasonable alternation back to popular.
That is not going to change after update 18.06. To quote the relevant part of the OP:
Note the “almost” part. I expect that the amount of damage the remaining
Do not fall for the psychological effect of seeing that 1% dent in the outer ring and thinking “wow, we can do it now if we try really hard”; ask yourself how long it took, and do the maths. Even if the efforts were increased thousandfold it would still take several weeks to take down Indra at its current strength. No chance of it happening in the less than 3 days that are left till the update.
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I understand, and forgive my stubbornness.
The word almost is nonsense, in my opinion after 18.06, until there are 3 systems left all the damage will go to 0.000000000000000001
I just want to drop into this thread to mention that I really appreciate the update post and communication about these changes. As far as I know, this whole thargoid war had its fair share of silent behind-the-scenes tuning and counteracting of player activity on the fly, in the past. I think balance and tuning changes should be, unless it is an absolute emergency, done in somewhat predictable cycles through patches with some form of transparent announcement in advance. 18.06 is exactly that and I applaud it.
It makes me very optimistic if this level of communication carries forward into future patches as well as potential iteration on Powerplay 2.0.
It makes me very optimistic if this level of communication carries forward into future patches as well as potential iteration on Powerplay 2.0.
Seraph is near Indra for support. Stop buy, get a drink, buy gas.
There were sort of comms and coordination for the power play 1.0 but they became rather insular. Also, they were on outside venues like discord.
Instead of calling these "changes," can we please just say it how it is, and admit that you're walking back on nerfs that you made? The tone of this post makes it sounds like these dynamics, mechanics, and reward structure has always been this way, it has not.
These "changes" Frontier is making are back tracking on nerfs they made months ago.
I mean, great, they're finally communicating the re-balancing of the thargoid war, instead of just shadow patching on a Thursday without telling anyone, but just lay it out plainly, and call it how it is. These are not changes, these are back pedals.
Frontier, you nerfed thargoid payouts, across the board. You nerfed search and rescue missions, you nerfed the impact of Orthus kills.... But you buffed tissue sampling.... Not only that, you buffed and made thargoid controlled systems exponentially harder to capture, and further made the game completely unapproachable to new players.
This massively disingenuous, and intellectually dishonest tone from Frontier is just flat out annoying and insulting to the playerbase. Enough with the beat around the bush, lack of communication. Just. Say. It. How. It. IS.
You're not making "changes" you're walking back on decisions YOU MADE... Then calling it changes and review of "Following player feedback."
I mean... Thankfully they're actually saying something, and the walking back on these changes is months overdue.... Just, come on, treat your playerbase like adults instead of children, and gaslightling people.
These "changes" Frontier is making are back tracking on nerfs they made months ago.
I mean, great, they're finally communicating the re-balancing of the thargoid war, instead of just shadow patching on a Thursday without telling anyone, but just lay it out plainly, and call it how it is. These are not changes, these are back pedals.
Frontier, you nerfed thargoid payouts, across the board. You nerfed search and rescue missions, you nerfed the impact of Orthus kills.... But you buffed tissue sampling.... Not only that, you buffed and made thargoid controlled systems exponentially harder to capture, and further made the game completely unapproachable to new players.
This massively disingenuous, and intellectually dishonest tone from Frontier is just flat out annoying and insulting to the playerbase. Enough with the beat around the bush, lack of communication. Just. Say. It. How. It. IS.
You're not making "changes" you're walking back on decisions YOU MADE... Then calling it changes and review of "Following player feedback."
I mean... Thankfully they're actually saying something, and the walking back on these changes is months overdue.... Just, come on, treat your playerbase like adults instead of children, and gaslightling people.
How can you say that? The non-Orthrus combat bond amounts are the old amounts, but everything else is new:
- Linear system strength.
- Actions balanced relative to each other (as opposed to simple system strength changes).
- Spire progress less beholden to Thursdays.
- Spire progress working concurrently with direct progress.
- Clear delineation regarding when a Titan is vulnerable for attack (a simplification, but it is not as if we were doing partial Titan assaults at high resistance anyway).
- Counterstrike much more useful, with Titan rescues now affecting over a dozen systems at the Maelstrom with lowest Control.
I mean it's a fair point that at times they have done things and not been honest with us about the reasons for it or worse, insulted our intelligence with obvious excuses and deflections.
They gaslighted us for not doing Alerts without even acknowledging that we were doing them - until they quadrupled their difficulty at a time when we were getting dozens of them a week so that difficulty increase really wasn't necessary, and made them so hard that it would take all week to do a few of them which was an unproductive use of our time. That was why we stopped and not, as they seem to think, because we were stupid. Way to appeal to your player base by publicly calling them idiots and even more galling when the idiocy was on their side, not ours. Slow clap.
Then there was the knee jerk reaction to sampling by nerfing it, instead of doing what they are finally doing now and making other activities worth doing instead. The fact they are doing it now proves they could have done it any time. Instead they spent months treating us as if we wanted to do sampling, which amongst fun things to do is up there with having your teeth pulled by a blind chimpanzee with dyspraxia, a pair of pliers and no anaesthetic.
Then the spamming of Alerts at Oya to cover up that they needed an extra week to fix Titan bugs. Like a child too scared to come clean and admit they made a mistake they covered it up with bluster and a non story about Orthruses that went nowhere.
So I get where the poster is coming from that they have been less than honest with us and condescended to us as if we were fools who didn't know what we're doing, not because we didn't but because they only skim read the situation and couldn't be bothered to look properly at what we were doing. Snarky remarks on their livestreams about us doing things the hard way with zero self awareness or recognition of their own ignorance as part of the problem.
I think they sometimes forget what a large middle aged to late middle aged demographic they have, people who have been round the block a few times and can see that painfully obvious excuse making a mile off. And it doesn't fool us for a second.
But yes, this is them finally doing what they should have done a year ago. Paying attention and not just coming out with gaslighting nonsense because they didn't read the room.
If I wanted to be presented with a series of spectacles I would have gone to an optician. What I wanted was some depth and intelligence applied to the process and we didn't get it. Instead of realising its potential as a high concept science fantasy war and embracing the chance to do something truly different we got a lame re-enactment of WW2 in space with tired old tropes about supply lines and beachheads. Which makes absolutely no sense against a species with far superior hyperspace abilities than we have, whose hyperspace abilities we cannibalised and produced an inferior version of just to get anywhere at all. They could have run rings around us, which is why at one point I wondered if this was an experiment on the part of the Thargoids, trying war our way as a test.
We'll do it because there's nothing else to do and some of it is fun and we're committed to finishing what we started but still - what an absolute, imagination deficit, dull, processional, by the numbers and clichéd waste of a good idea.
But.. the outcome might be a better PP! That's something.
Coupled with the fact that basically all story within the Thargoid confines stopped when the Titan assaults started - and just blowing them up is not really story if the overall supporting structure is missing, it’s just shooting big punching bags for humans - and, even, almost entirely outside of the Thargoid war/Titan arc.
And don’t get me started on the way GalNet tried to portray the development of the torpedoes as an extreme, utmost necessity that could not afford any further delays…
… meanwhile, the Thargoids barely made any headroom on the Bubble and weren’t giving any signs of attempting to speed up the pace of the assault or disrupting the creation of the weapon. I’ve just ended up reading into it as “We need you to hurry up and kill the Titans so we can slap our Powerplay rework into the game”… which then makes me not be very interested in it as a result*.
(Minor nitpick - regular Titan operation does really not seem to have ships leaving at a pace where it would actually feel corresponding to the stuff we see thrown at stations in AXCZs, in several systems at a time across a Titan control sphere.)
Speaking of those, I did think it might have some worth testing their effectiveness after the update. I’m sure the most interested parties in it will though… it’d have to at least be half-decent, considering the generally higher level of Titan alertness, even when not under assault yet, will complicate getting them significantly.
*And I’m currently not anywhere near the optimism required to believe there is any actual plan to use the end stage of the war to actually set up for it, by using the Thargoids/remaining Titans to cause a solid mess and shakeup. They couldn’t even continue the GalNet line about Winters deciding to report inauguration (again?) because of the totally natural earthquake stuff.
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Maybe but personally I value my indy status and have no interest in pledging to a power just to spend all day fighting another power. Powerplay holds no interest for me, if I was remotely interested in inter faction fighting I'd play Guild Wars, but if the Thargoid War automated model ends up being a dry run for PP and makes it a better experience for those who do enjoy it, then that is one positive, yes.
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I still think the Titans just sitting there and letting us knock them over, with a weapon adapted from their old enemies, is ridiculous. If I was being attacked by a weapon that a) I had no defence against and b) could always adapt to anything I did, I would not sit around waiting to be killed by it.