GALNET - 09 MAR 3307- Thargoid Conflict Discussed at the Galactic Summit

Commdor

Commdor
This coming on the heels of the "Hesperus" thing can't be a coincidence. And the name "Hesperus" is related to "Lucifer", and there's a planet named Lucifer in Sirius - could Hesperus be the name of a new Aegis project or lab that will be set up on Lucifer as a result of the Sirius Treaty?

More importantly, does this all mean we are getting new Thargoid/Guardian stuff very soon, or is this more buildup for content we won't see until Odyssey?

Rubbernuke said:
When did the Alliance get so excited about Thargoids?
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When the Thargoids attacked the Alliance's holdings in Witch Head and Coalsack a few weeks back, I reckon. That's sort of Mahon's fault since he opened the door for Sirius to poke the bear in the Coalsack, so now he's all gung-ho about xeno war to save face.
 

Keanson

Keanson
There's nothin' wrong with The Club, when you join you get a lifetime allocation of these:

McVities_Club_Mint_biscuit_%28whole%29_%28UK_version%29.jpg
 

Retropolitan

Retropolitan
Keanson said:
There's nothin' wrong with The Club, when you join you get a lifetime allocation of these:

McVities_Club_Mint_biscuit_%28whole%29_%28UK_version%29.jpg
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Sure there is. They'd be way more ominous if they had a name like The Ancient and Malevolent Fraternity of Left-Handed Bell Ringers. I just can't get worked up over anybody that names their secret society after a sandwich. Or a wafer, or whatever that chocolatey thing is.
 

Chase Quinnell

Chase Quinnell
Ian Doncaster said:
Equally, without the Federation and Empire involved, joint Thargoid efforts are basically laughable anyway - they may be dying powers, but they're still very substantial ones by the standards of anyone else. Who else has Mahon got onboard...
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I take issue with the claim that the Federation is a dying power. The Federation maintains its grasp on territory and even makes several gains territory from time to time.
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Chase Quinnell said:
I take issue with the claim that the Federation is a dying power. The Federation maintains its grasp on territory and even makes several gains territory from time to time.
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Sure, it's not uniformly downwards ... but when over a third of the Federal systems present at the start of Hudson's term of office have seceded, and mostly not been replaced, it's not a good sign, nor what most people would call "maintaining its grasp on territory" either.

Even in this shrunken state, it still has 28% of the bubble's population and 35% of its economic power. As I also said, there's no possible claim to a unified human response to anything without at least one of the Federation and Empire joining in (and really, both) ... and perhaps Hudson or Winters might see joining such an initiative as a way to spread soft Federal power and perhaps encourage some of the defectors to return.
 

biot

biot
While it might be tempting to splash Guardian tech all over like the great smell of Brut, this clearly antagonizes the Thargoids and I imagine if we ever run into the Guardian AI they might be like "oh, you guys again, thought we had gotten rid of you before ... zzzaap zzzaap".

Given that the AI successfully gave the Thargoids a thoroughly bloody proboscis they might turn out to be the bigger threat ...
 

Ferry_25

F
I know: it's only a game. But I had to get that out of the way. How about sending a letter to the Thargies? I mean they don't seem to be that bad: they only attack when provoked. So what if they blew up some of those miserable stations. I wish I could out of frustration how stupidly they are nearly all seem to be placed in orbits! And those rescues from burning stations! Finding it more important to fine me 100cr because an explosion pushed me to the wrong landing pad by accident, which I can only bloody pay off elsewhere without being able to ferry (lol!) out refugees makes me think there aren't nearly enough attacks.
Dear Thargies,

We like to offer an olive branch (some plant from some planet which grows beans we like). We have deciphered the history of the Guardians (those morons 1 million years ago) and we must warn you: we are too stupid to invent AI weapons which can destroy ourselves. On the contrary. We are still fighting over resources which aren't even scarce anymore and over petty belief systems just like we were 10k years ago with our stone axes and arrows. Only now with ships and lasers. So tough luck waiting our extinction out. We are also too resilient to do that with those ships. Otherwise those stone weapons would have done the trick eons ago.

We also notices you need those brown planets with ammonia on it. We only need that stuff to prime surfaces for paint jobs. We need the blue ones. The ones you don't seem to have any interest in whatsoever. So I see a deal brewing up here. I also believe we can figure something out for those barren rocks where you have your spike cities. Seems to be way more than enough of them around? By the way: WTFF are you doing there? Sometimes our pilots see those sun block umbrella's jumping in, hovering above such a spike, doing... things and then leave. Frankly it reminds me of past tech we called "road toilets."

So what do you say? You take the brown and we the blue planets and who knows: maybe we can buy some bottles of ammonia from you when we feel like spending some Arx for fancy paints. We could also work out some deals for sponsorships: painting your ships with commercials for skin sunblockers, garden furniture or beach toys! This galaxy seems big enough for all of us and who knows: with combined forces we could jump to Andromeda (the thing 2.5M LYS away, coming towards us). Couple of 100's of B star systems more over there. Trying to get rid of us is like we have tried with cockroaches (no offense meant).

Oh: and if you want to land on one of our stations: those personel doesn't appear to have the highest IQ scores out there. You need to ask permission to land first. Also: go fly horizontally to get through that entrance. I know it's a b*tch to squeeze a ship through it but trying to shoot a hole in the hull to get in might get some insiders nervous. Just a tip.

Cheers!

Ferry
 

Phill P

Phill P
Ian Doncaster said:
Between Witch Head and Coalsack, the Alliance is about the only power to have significant exposure to current Thargoid attacks. So ... probably when they took the decision to take over running of the Witch Head enclave from the joint Aegis-sponsored authorities.

I'd be surprised if after Witch Head either Federation or Empire trusted the Alliance not to pull the same trick again - jointly fund various facilities in the name of anti-Thargoid work, then quietly take them over for itself once the immediate attention has moved elsewhere attending the conference
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Interesting observation. Has this happened because of fdev doing something, or through Alliance players making the factions there the controlling ones?
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Pphree said:
Interesting observation. Has this happened because of fdev doing something, or through Alliance players making the factions there the controlling ones?
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Both, I'd say. Frontier unfroze the BGS in the Witch Head in December 3305 (about four months after most of it was founded), and Alliance players had rather predictably taken over the whole thing for their factions by July 3306 (mostly by April). When the Thargoids returned in mid-October 3306 - https://community.elitedangerous.com/galnet/15-OCT-3306 - it was only the Alliance who called for defensive assistance, even though some of the attacked systems were originally Federal- or Imperial- founded ... and by November 3306 the Federation and Empire were both withdrawing Aegis funding to concentrate on conventional military spending ... and now the Thargoids are basically seen as "an Alliance problem".


Counterfactual: what if the Alliance players hadn't done that, and/or there had been a successful effort to preserve power-sharing in Witch Head that meant they couldn't?
- Witch Head attacks are then seen as a threat to all three superpowers, who jointly fund a response
- Aegis doesn't get defunded
- With the Thargoids out there, more effort is made for a diplomatic solution to the Marlinist refugee crisis, rather than the Fed/Empire sabre-rattling and skirmishes
- Coalsack is an Aegis/Sirius rather than Alliance/Sirius project
- the tensions that led to Antal calling for a peace conference and Sirius taking over the idea don't really arise
- so the Alliance election doesn't get rescheduled (and without the tensions that causes, Mahon probably gets a narrow but comfortable win)

Obviously some other things would have happened instead, but it would have been a rather different baseline that Frontier's writers had to work with, and events so far would have played out quite differently.


(The writers willingness to incorporate this sort of thing does make me think the PMFs currently dismantling Marlinist territory may come to regret it...but we'll see)
 

Phill P

Phill P
Ian Doncaster said:
Both, I'd say. Frontier unfroze the BGS in the Witch Head in December 3305 (about four months after most of it was founded), and Alliance players had rather predictably taken over the whole thing for their factions by July 3306 (mostly by April). When the Thargoids returned in mid-October 3306 - https://community.elitedangerous.com/galnet/15-OCT-3306 - it was only the Alliance who called for defensive assistance, even though some of the attacked systems were originally Federal- or Imperial- founded ... and by November 3306 the Federation and Empire were both withdrawing Aegis funding to concentrate on conventional military spending ... and now the Thargoids are basically seen as "an Alliance problem".
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I remember. Our squad specialises in burning station rescues and we had a lot of work to do between the terrorist attacks and the massive incursion on New Year's Eve. I'm still a bit surprised at how fast the Alliance factions took over WH, considering most people go for the Fed systems when there are stations on fire to grind for the vette. It's the first question people ask us, where are the Fed systems. Looking at the systems in WH the controlling faction generally has INF in the 60s and 70s with everyone else nowhere by comparison, which says to me players working hard to get them there as opposed to being a natural state of affairs. Part of me wonders if this is the fault of Emp and Fed players not bothering with the place much, leaving it open to Alliance takeover through their own complacency in maintaining a presence there.

Those thinking the Thargs are an Alliance problem must be crazy though, they are everyone's problem.

Interesting what if there too, had it not gone that way how would they have worked it into the story? Thanks for sharing, I love that stuff and had similar thoughts about where the story may have gone if it hadn't gone the way it has, but not to the same depth you have, so thanks again.

And yes, I agree, the player factions taking over the Marlinist systems could find it backfiring on them. Interesting times.
 

myothershipisacobraiv

myothershipisacobraiv
All the Thargoids are named after mythical beasts. Hesperus is a greek deity representing Venus. I wasn't sure if that tweet they made wasn't just a reference to womens day. Not sure this corresponds to a Thargoid. Maybe they're referencing a mothership.
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Pphree said:
Looking at the systems in WH the controlling faction generally has INF in the 60s and 70s with everyone else nowhere by comparison, which says to me players working hard to get them there as opposed to being a natural state of affairs. Part of me wonders if this is the fault of Emp and Fed players not bothering with the place much, leaving it open to Alliance takeover through their own complacency in maintaining a presence there.
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For whatever reason, the Alliance has ended up with a few player groups whose goal is Alliance expansionism in the general sense, and which are less attached to specific factions, while the Federation and Empire don't really seem to have that - possibly because the players who would are instead focused on the Fed/Imp conflict in Powerplay?

So as with the Marlinists today, the Fed/Imp WH factions didn't really have any significant number of "natural" supporters.
(And it'll be interesting to see, if Frontier do develop either the Marlinists or Kumo into a more significant political entity, whether they attract more baseline supporters in that sense, and what it means for the story if they don't)
 
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