Going Cold is very hit or miss vs. Thargoids

Scoob

Scoob
Hey all,

I read / watched in a few places about going cold to avoid being shot by Thargoids, but it's VERY inconsistent. Sometimes I've launched a Heatsink, dropped to 0% heat and any nearby Thargoids - Scouts and Interceptors - have near instantly broken off their attack or at least stopped hitting me. This had been working relatively well, so much so I doubled-up on Heatsinks, sacrificing a Shield Booster.

However, every now and again this technique does NOTHING, it's as if I'm lit up like a Christmas tree and EVERYTHING makes a bee-line for me it seems. Take just now, I was doing well in the instance, dropping the odd heatsink and boosting away along a different vector (FA Off) and every time my attackers broke off, unable to hit me any more. However, in my last fight I went through five Heatsinks for just one engagement. I was over 4km away from my nearest attacker, I was at 0% heat and travelling along an opposing vector to their original path following me. I was NOT shooting at them, I was purely in evade mode. However, they just continued to bear down on me and follow my every move while I was at 0% temperatures for an extended period.

I see these guides (videos) of people "cold orbiting" in their shieldless ships clearly not being hit - or even targetting it seems - by the very ship they're currently actively shooting. I don't quite understand the inconsistency I'm experiencing using going cold just to escape. Several times in a row it works perfectly exactly as you'd expect, like I've dropped off the Thargoids scanners. Then suddenly it's like all Thargoids in the instance gain super awareness of my presence and nothing works.

Now, I'm not sure if I was perhaps experiencing some sort of Networking gremlin during this last incident - networking has been pretty flaky of late - as my ship didn't seem to be behaving quite right. I was boosting in a direction - controlled appeared to be responding to my inputs - but it's like I was standing still, despite the HUD suggesting I was travelling at speed. Not quite sure what happened to be honest, but an otherwise (previously) successfully technique just stopped working.

Perhaps my ships was frozen on the spot - I have seen that before - and that's why the technique appeared to fail as I wasn't actually moving as far as the Thargoids were concerned. It'd explain why the were able to keep perfect pace with me, despite my apparent vector changes and boosting...

Anyone else experience this?

Scoob.
 

Scoob

Scoob
GroG79 said:
The swarm and scouts can see you even if you are cold
Click to expand...

Really? I've used this technique almost exclusively vs. Scouts with great success, until this evening when it all went a bit screwy. Also, I do now think my ships was somehow stuck in position and my manoeuvring didn't seem t change the scouts relative position / vector towards me. It was weird.

I find it odd that a pretty reliable technique was suddenly so ineffective but, like I said, I do suspect some sort of network...pixie...is at fault.

Scoob.
 

Scoob

Scoob
Just went into another AXCZ, this time the technique was working perfectly once more. I'm swarmed by Scouts, all shooting me, I drop a heatsink and boost away along another vector and they all instantly stop hitting me and quickly lose interest - even though I'm the only Human ship in the instance I can see. This gave me time to decontaminate and launch a fresh fighter, before returning to the fight.

I had one more Thargoid Scout kill to get for a mission, so flew into a huge cluster of Scouts, two Interceptors and two swarms - no allies, except my SLF - I pick one Scout, kill it, go cold and boost out of there. No issues. I strongly suspect I had a weird network issue previously and my ship was indeed not actually moving, presenting a stationary sitting duck target to the Thargoids.

Glad my last trip to the AXCZ went as planned, but a little disturbed by what was going on previously.

Scoob.
 

Scoob

Scoob
Bottom Hat said:
Maybe being covered in goo makes you visible regardless? I have no idea but just a thought, based on what you described.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, though I'm often retreating to remove said goo, so I've gone cold and escaped many a time. My friend was having networking-related (we assume) issue this evening too, so I'm gonna assume that's what it is.

Taking a break from all things AX now. Did some Guardian Weapons site activities, got really bored doing that, so was just doing a little more combat before jumping the carrier back to the vicinity of Shinrarta. In no hurry to try out Guardian Weapons now, but the option is there at least.

Scoob.
 

CMDR Cknarf

CMDR Cknarf
From what I understand, if you are cold enough (Sub 20%) thargoids won't be able to hit you. HOWEVER, if you are extremely close to them, they can hit you still. Also, if you squared up with them, they can hit you as well. Try to stay 10+ degrees off from the thargoid's line of fire, if that makes sense.

goid05182021.jpg


The swarm is not affected by your temperature. They will chase you until they are eliminated, aggro'd by someone else, called back to refresh, or suicide into you.
 

Guyperson

Guyperson
Even if you go cold, Thargoids need a hotter target within range to go after. If you're the only thing nearby that they're mad at, they'll keep after you anyway even though your low heat makes you harder to target. You don't just up and turn invisible to them if they already know you're there.
 

Scoob

Scoob
I guess, to me at least, it's a little odd to see a tactic work time and time again really well then, for just one session in an AXCZ, fail abysmally, before consistently working great once again.

It's funny, if anything it was the Interceptors I'd struggle to shake if anything, Scouts and Swarms never really posed a problem. This is when I perfected the FA Off, go cold, change vector and boost tactic which worked great. Those interceptors seem to have an insane mass-lock level, even vs. the likes of an Anaconda. Sure, they are indeed pretty huge, so that makes sense.

For clarity, it was the Interceptor that really caused me problems as it was always right behind me on radar, despite my vector changes even when I did a 180. That's why I suspect that there was something screwy going on and it's not just down to the cold mechanics not working as they usually would.

Next session my tactics worked perfectly, so I was able to go cold, which stopped me being hit, chance vector and boost back past the Interceptors and gain sufficient distance to Low-Wake without issue.

Btw: on a sort of related note, I rarely flee from combat, but I'm pretty new to AX so it seems prudent to do so. One time, I made sure I had another system (where my FC is) targetted so I could make a quick escape, assuming I'd NOT be mass-locked and could jump away quickly. However, it didn't work and my "Charging" bar was totally stuck.

Anyway, really tired now. Night all o7.

Scoob.
 

Sensei Jacksama

Sensei Jacksama
Scoob said:
Hey all,

I read / watched in a few places about going cold to avoid being shot by Thargoids, but it's VERY inconsistent. Sometimes I've launched a Heatsink, dropped to 0% heat and any nearby Thargoids - Scouts and Interceptors - have near instantly broken off their attack or at least stopped hitting me. This had been working relatively well, so much so I doubled-up on Heatsinks, sacrificing a Shield Booster.

However, every now and again this technique does NOTHING, it's as if I'm lit up like a Christmas tree and EVERYTHING makes a bee-line for me it seems. Take just now, I was doing well in the instance, dropping the odd heatsink and boosting away along a different vector (FA Off) and every time my attackers broke off, unable to hit me any more. However, in my last fight I went through five Heatsinks for just one engagement. I was over 4km away from my nearest attacker, I was at 0% heat and travelling along an opposing vector to their original path following me. I was NOT shooting at them, I was purely in evade mode. However, they just continued to bear down on me and follow my every move while I was at 0% temperatures for an extended period.

I see these guides (videos) of people "cold orbiting" in their shieldless ships clearly not being hit - or even targetting it seems - by the very ship they're currently actively shooting. I don't quite understand the inconsistency I'm experiencing using going cold just to escape. Several times in a row it works perfectly exactly as you'd expect, like I've dropped off the Thargoids scanners. Then suddenly it's like all Thargoids in the instance gain super awareness of my presence and nothing works.

Now, I'm not sure if I was perhaps experiencing some sort of Networking gremlin during this last incident - networking has been pretty flaky of late - as my ship didn't seem to be behaving quite right. I was boosting in a direction - controlled appeared to be responding to my inputs - but it's like I was standing still, despite the HUD suggesting I was travelling at speed. Not quite sure what happened to be honest, but an otherwise (previously) successfully technique just stopped working.

Perhaps my ships was frozen on the spot - I have seen that before - and that's why the technique appeared to fail as I wasn't actually moving as far as the Thargoids were concerned. It'd explain why the were able to keep perfect pace with me, despite my apparent vector changes and boosting...

Anyone else experience this?

Scoob.
Click to expand...
I'm new to cold orbiting and I've been practicing the technique by using a large long range beam laser with thermal vent to continuously cool myself. (I don't actually shoot back it's just a livefire training exercises I'm doing to master the technique). Earlier today I also experienced the same thing you describe. I had several successful runs against a basilisk then, just suddenly like someone flipped a switch and It chewed me up like a dog's toy. Like I said I'm new to it so I haven't had enough time to determine what exactly I was doing wrong.

EDIT: I did later actually experience an issue with my game not recognizing horizons so perhaps there is something happening on the networking side.
 
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Scoob

Scoob
There's been a lot of wonky stuff going on lately. My regular Wingmate has had lots odd issues the past few evenings too. Not sure what's going on.

(I didn't go to bed when I intended, really going now lol)

Scoob.
 

photomankc

photomankc
Scoob said:
I guess, to me at least, it's a little odd to see a tactic work time and time again really well then, for just one session in an AXCZ, fail abysmally, before consistently working great once again.

It's funny, if anything it was the Interceptors I'd struggle to shake if anything, Scouts and Swarms never really posed a problem. This is when I perfected the FA Off, go cold, change vector and boost tactic which worked great. Those interceptors seem to have an insane mass-lock level, even vs. the likes of an Anaconda. Sure, they are indeed pretty huge, so that makes sense.

For clarity, it was the Interceptor that really caused me problems as it was always right behind me on radar, despite my vector changes even when I did a 180. That's why I suspect that there was something screwy going on and it's not just down to the cold mechanics not working as they usually would.

Next session my tactics worked perfectly, so I was able to go cold, which stopped me being hit, chance vector and boost back past the Interceptors and gain sufficient distance to Low-Wake without issue.

Btw: on a sort of related note, I rarely flee from combat, but I'm pretty new to AX so it seems prudent to do so. One time, I made sure I had another system (where my FC is) targetted so I could make a quick escape, assuming I'd NOT be mass-locked and could jump away quickly. However, it didn't work and my "Charging" bar was totally stuck.

Anyway, really tired now. Night all o7.

Scoob.
Click to expand...

An interceptor does NOT loose track of you because you go cold and boost. It will have a harder time hitting you but it is aware of your position and will track you. If something else is firing at it enough to agro it then it may move on to them rather than chase you in many cases but they can still see a cold ship. In single goid fights I’ve never seen one confused by cold and boost. It always chases the one it’s agroed on. They are all fairly fast compared to large ships and a Basilisk can move in the 400‘s so your going to have a hell of a time separating from that one. Boost past is the best move for a slower ship so that’s the right move to get some space.

The AX CZs are fun but they are a bug ridden mess as well. Unkillable hearts. Random caustic damage in empty space. Goids that bug out. FSD won’t engage. Invisible Scouts that won’t let the battle be won. The state of them is an embarrassment in my opinion. FDev looks really bad leaving them like this for years now.
 

Cmdr Snuffler

Cmdr Snuffler
Cknarf said:
From what I understand, if you are cold enough (Sub 20%) thargoids won't be able to hit you. HOWEVER, if you are extremely close to them, they can hit you still. Also, if you squared up with them, they can hit you as well. Try to stay 10+ degrees off from the thargoid's line of fire, if that makes sense.

View attachment 226956

The swarm is not affected by your temperature. They will chase you until they are eliminated, aggro'd by someone else, called back to refresh, or suicide into you.
Click to expand...
Isn't that just the technique for 1980's space invaders :D
From what I understand going cold doesn't mean they stop engaging completely it just means their weapons can't track you as efficiently and thus if you're flying lateral/orbiting then they miss.
Have you checked what range they are when they disengage?
 

Scoob

Scoob
photomankc said:
An interceptor does NOT loose track of you because you go cold and boost. It will have a harder time hitting you but it is aware of your position and will track you. If something else is firing at it enough to agro it then it may move on to them rather than chase you in many cases but they can still see a cold ship. In single goid fights I’ve never seen one confused by cold and boost. It always chases the one it’s agroed on. They are all fairly fast compared to large ships and a Basilisk can move in the 400‘s so your going to have a hell of a time separating from that one. Boost past is the best move for a slower ship so that’s the right move to get some space.

The AX CZs are fun but they are a bug ridden mess as well. Unkillable hearts. Random caustic damage in empty space. Goids that bug out. FSD won’t engage. Invisible Scouts that won’t let the battle be won. The state of them is an embarrassment in my opinion. FDev looks really bad leaving them like this for years now.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it's more about going cold so I don't get hit, which buys me breathing room, then doubling back taking advantage of the Interceptor's poor turn rate. I can go cold - which prevents me taking any more hits for the moment - turn and, with FA Off, boost back past them and they get left behind and don't catch up. This technique also allows me to lose most, if not all, pursuing Scouts. Great if I need to stop for repairs, but getting away from the Interceptor being key so I can jump out.

The other night, when things went a bit wrong, I was taking constant fire, despite being cold and a good 3km+ away from the nearest ship. This did not reflect my prior, and subsequent, experiences in AX combat. However, like you say, it can be a VERY buggy experience, and I've seen many of the issues you point out in my short time doing the AXCZ'd.

As an aside, I'm not sure how close an Interceptor has to be to totally mass lock a player in an Anaconda, however, I've never seen the FSD charge so slowly as I have when there's an Interceptor near by. I was being blocked from jumping even having gained 3km or so distance from the Interceptor. I then tried a High wake, and that was stuck too, though that surely must be a bug.

Scoob.
 
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