Has anyone made efforts to locate the Thargoid home world?

[Sophokles Logimo]

I mean, there are so many explorers in the game, shouldn't someone have found the Thargoid homeworld by now? Or is this still worth to try?

Or have I overlooked it, and it has even been found?


Edit: Candidates identified int his thread:

• Col 70 Sector FY-N C21-3
• [Merope 5c is somehow important, but not a Thargoid world, it seems]
• V355 Monocerotis (in the Cone Sector)
• Somwhere in Barnard's Loop.

 

[Para Handy]

Probably in a permit-locked area.

 

[Factabulous]

Col 70 Sector FY-N C21-3 is a candidate, what with it being used as a reference point in the thargoid triangulations, but as Para says, Permit Locked.

 

[Go'Gen]

- But each one of these things comes from an egg, right? So who's laying these eggs?
- I'm not sure. It must be something we haven't seen yet.

 

[Cmdr Nemo LXXI]

Though we player's are confined to staying in the Milky Way Galaxy, that doesn't mean that the in game character's are. The Guardians and the Thargoids may reside outside of our galaxy in which there are billion's.

 

[Jmanis]

Col 70 Sector FY-N C21-3 is a candidate, what with it being used as a reference point in the thargoid triangulations, but as Para says, Permit Locked.

Other candidate is, of course, the Cone Sector, not just for the Gnosis jump failing and the report of a large concentration of Thargoids, but also where I observed V355 Monocerotis with a population, but no government, superpower, security or economy during a Beta.

Or a locked system in Barnard's Loop, given the similarities between that and the Barnacle/Thargoid markings.

 

[Thatchinho]

I mean, there are so many explorers in the game, shouldn't someone found the Thargoid homeworld by now? Or is this still worth to try?

Or have I overlooked it, and it has even been found?

What’s making you think the Thargoids have a homeworld (in any meaningful sense of the phrase)?

(And just to avoid the situation that sometimes occurs, if your answer is ‘well duh, they must have a homeworld’ please re-check the question and the phrasing and tenses used. )

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

What’s making you think the Thargoids have a homeworld (in any meaningful sense of the phrase)?
[...]

We can talk about the semantics here, but there will be a system (or possibly a couple of systems) that interest them enough so that, if we attacked them there, they'd move their fleets back there to defend it, instead of attacking our worlds.

 

[Vetinari]

What’s making you think the Thargoids have a homeworld (in any meaningful sense of the phrase)?

(And just to avoid the situation that sometimes occurs, if your answer is ‘well duh, they must have a homeworld’ please re-check the question and the phrasing and tenses used. )

Cmndr Jameson was sent on a mission to deliver Mycoid to the Thargoid home world, he never made it back. That's still in-game lore.

 

[Thatchinho]

We can talk about the semantics here, but there will be a system (or possibly a couple of systems) that interest them enough so that, if we attacked them there, they'd move their fleets back there to defend it, instead of attacking our worlds.

So... you think their civilisation will be orientated around providing us with an extremely convenient (and pretty sci-fi cliche) military strategy?

(Hope that doesn’t sound like I’m being hostile. Just making a point. )

 

[Thatchinho]

Cmndr Jameson was sent on a mission to deliver Mycoid to the Thargoid home world, he never made it back. That's still in-game lore.

With that phrasing, no, that’s not quite an accurate statement of what the lore is. The issue is with the ‘where’ part.

 

[Para Handy]

Cmndr Jameson was sent on a mission to deliver Mycoid to the Thargoid home world, he never made it back. That's still in-game lore.

That is not correct - the mission was to "one of their hive ships". From the logs:

"Flying up to one of their hive ships? Well, that’s a whole different story. Hell, I don’t even know what I’m carrying...

Threaded my way past their perimeter, masked my heat signature so I could get close to the superstructure. I tell you… I’d never seen a hive ship up close before. I doubt many people have. It was amazing, kiddo. Beautiful, really. Makes you realise just how smart they are, how advanced. ..."

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

So... you think their civilisation will be orientated around providing us with an extremely convenient (and pretty sci-fi cliche) military strategy? [...]

I think they will need an energy source, matter to build their bodies and ships with as well as some kind of preparation in order to be able to digest or work that matter and thus, places where facilities to turn matter into a useable form exist. And those places will be important to them.

After all, if they don't need anything, what would be their motive to interact with us at all?

 

[Vetinari]

I stand corrected, damn retconning!

 

[Thatchinho]

I think they will need an energy source, matter to build their bodies and ships with as well as some kind of preparation in order to be able to digest or work that matter and thus, places where facilities to turn matter into a useable form exist. And those places will be important to them.

Well yes, and to some extent that is how some issues have occurred - when other species have unknowingly (or knowingly) strayed into those regions and interfered.

Big questions though about how it is in terms of their civilisation as a whole. For a loosely comparative example, if a human mining company’s operation in a few systems got disrupted, what would that mean in terms of the entire human civilisation?

Having said that, it’s difficult to say how useful that kind of comparison is. Human civilisation has only been interstellar for 1,000 years or so, whereas the Thargoids have been an interstellar civilisation for more than 2,000,000 years (and we’ve got no idea just how old their civilisation actually is).

After all, if they don't need anything, what would be their motive to interact with us at all?

Theories abound on that matter! There could be a multitude of reasons. They might need things beyond the basics of survival. They might just want things. They’re aliens though (as opposed to a re-skinned version of humanity, or aspect of humanity, to look at in more meta terms), so we don’t really know to what extent we can apply standard human conceptual frameworks.

Just to come back to the first matter from the post, we know that Merope, and Merope 5 c in particular, is in a sense important to the Thargoids, as it’s used as a reference by the Thargoid Sensors, Probes, etc. What we don’t really know is why.

Similarly, why is Col 70 Sector FY-N C21-3 referred to? We (in the sense of independent pilots) just don’t know. Though unless the permit locks are hard enforced by an external non-human force, then some within humanity do know what’s there.

It’s on the boundary of the Braintree field which surrounds the main Guardian bubble, but whether there’s any significance to that is a matter of hypothesis and speculation as it stands.

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

Well yes, and to some extent that is how some issues have occurred - when other species have unknowingly (or knowingly) strayed into those regions and interfered.

Big questions though about how it is in terms of their civilisation as a whole. For a loosely comparative example, if a human mining company’s operation in a few systems got disrupted, what would that mean in terms of the entire human civilisation?

If human civilization was in the process of attacking the aliens, you can bet that would result in some kind of reaction. And from that reaction, the aliens could learn something - even if it was minor.

We need to stop reacting, and start acting, and for that, we need a list of targets.

There could be a multitude of reasons. They might need things beyond the basics of survival. They might just want things.

Which would make no difference in the context of the question at hand. If they want things that are located elsewhere more than they want to achieve what they want to achieve by invading our space, then attacking there will help with stopping the invasion.

They’re aliens though (as opposed to a re-skinned version of humanity, or aspect of humanity, to look at in more meta terms), so we don’t really know to what extent we can apply standard human conceptual frameworks.

The principles of strategy do not depend on the opponent being human, merely that the opponent operates in the same "physical" (or in this case, simulated) universe as humans.

When people say "they are not humans", they seem too conflate human motivations with universal motivations. No lifeform will have survived without the urge to survive. No interstellar civilization will have survived without the urge to go out there. For these things, all lifeforms need certain things, and everything else follows from that.

We may not be able to attack their political structure, because we don't understand it. But we can and should attack their strategic assets until they stop attacking ours.

we know that Merope, and Merope 5 c in particular, is in a sense important to the Thargoids, as it’s used as a reference by the Thargoid Sensors, Probes, etc. What we don’t really know is why.

There are probabilities, though, aren't there? They'll probably have some kind of base there, I would guess. Which would make it a target. And even though the permit locks prevent us to go there, we can search the vicinity for potentially similar results.

Similarly, why is Col 70 Sector FY-N C21-3 referred to? [...]

Doesn't really concern me as much as that it DOES have significance for them.

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

I have edited the OP to include the candidates named in here.

 

[Thatchinho]

If human civilization was in the process of attacking the aliens, you can bet that would result in some kind of reaction. And from that reaction, the aliens could learn something - even if it was minor.

We need to stop reacting, and start acting, and for that, we need a list of targets.



Which would make no difference in the context of the question at hand. If they want things that are located elsewhere more than they want to achieve what they want to achieve by invading our space, then attacking there will help with stopping the invasion.



The principles of strategy do not depend on the opponent being human, merely that the opponent operates in the same "physical" (or in this case, simulated) universe as humans.

When people say "they are not humans", they seem too conflate human motivations with universal motivations. No lifeform will have survived without the urge to survive. No interstellar civilization will have survived without the urge to go out there. For these things, all lifeforms need certain things, and everything else follows from that.

We may not be able to attack their political structure, because we don't understand it. But we can and should attack their strategic assets until they stop attacking ours.



There are probabilities, though, aren't there? They'll probably have some kind of base there, I would guess. Which would make it a target. And even though the permit locks prevent us to go there, we can search the vicinity for potentially similar results.



Doesn't really concern me as much as that it DOES have significance for them.

Ah, but here’s the rub... what you’re suggesting doing has already happened. We have gone into areas where their important resource production is taking place and disrupted it. And we are still occupying those areas.

So if we treat the current set of affairs with the Thargoids in isolation, when you’re saying:

If human civilization was in the process of attacking the aliens, you can bet that would result in some kind of reaction.

In the terms you set out, we are. And there is.

Action -> reaction.

Looked at simplistically, it could be asserted that the Thargoids are actually more or less doing what you are saying we should do if we were in their shoes.

Thus, the issue with the strategy you’re setting out is that it amounts to us responding to the reaction by doing more of the original action. So it becomes an escelating spiral of events.

Now what happens, if say, we are not in conflict with the Thargoid civilisation as such, but just one hive out of many? It would only be a matter of time before we attacked another hive’s territory. It might not be deliberate strategy, it might even be against what’s been set out, but someone will end up doing it. That might push things into an extinction (for us) situation.

Of course, the above is all way too simplistic as it treats the current set of events in isolation, whereas things have been going on with the Thargoids for hundreds of years (nearly 500 if some rumours are true).

The problem in many ways is that we are attempting to strategise from a position of information scarcity. Again I think it’s important to consider that not all of humanity is as scarce in information as we are. Yet despite that we are still in the situation we’re in. Which in its own way is a piece of information we have to take into account.


(Oh, and with regard to Merope, Merope isn’t locked. Merope 5c has been searched extensively, and nothing unusual has been found, other than a barnacle site. )

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

[...]
The problem in many ways is that we are attempting to strategise from a position of information scarcity. Again I think it’s important to consider that not all of humanity is as scarce in information as we are. Yet despite that we are still in the situation we’re in. Which in its own way is a piece of information we have to take into account.

Well, I am proposing to collect more information, so that we could use it in as a basis for stratgic considerations. I don't see how it helps that to say "we don't have enough information". Obviously, that is the case, hence the original proposal.

 

[Bigmaec]

- But each one of these things comes from an egg, right? So who's laying these eggs?
- I'm not sure. It must be something we haven't seen yet.

Hey, maybe it's like an ant hive...