How to progress Alerts most effectively.

[Jmanis]

Ah, so it's the act of collecting the sample which is significant, it doesn't matter what you do with it afterwards?

More significant... or at least that's my understanding. I was working one system with a bunch of tissue sampling, but I forgot to sell them. Seemed to have an effect prior to selling, but no noticable effect after selling.

Also, there's a thread somewhere where someone was flipping Thargoid controlled systems using tissue sampling (can't find it right now)... obviously those samples can't be sold anywhere since all stations are depopulated.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

More significant... or at least that's my understanding. I was working one system with a bunch of tissue sampling, but I forgot to sell them. Seemed to have an effect prior to selling, but no noticable effect after selling.

Also, there's a thread somewhere where someone was flipping Thargoid controlled systems using tissue sampling (can't find it right now)... obviously those samples can't be sold anywhere since all stations are depopulated.

They get sold to the rescue ships.

 

[Jmanis]

They get sold to the rescue ships.

...? In another system?

 

[Aleks Zuno]

Just checking, the Thargoid samples have to be actually collected in the Alert system? Selling samples from elsewhere is no good?

Yes:

• Notably we are using Hyperspace encounters to summon Thargoids into Alert systems (this occurs in the system from which the jump was attempted).
• It works also in Control and Invasion systems where one can drop anywhere and await targets, or perhaps use a Conflict Zone.

If so, this is interesting: individual samples must be tagged with their system of origin.

They are! This was discussed on Frame Shift Live, where designer Derin was quite pleased with that. The primary context was salvage items, but it applies to research samples.

What happens if you combine samples from different systems into a stack in your carrier?

Despite being displayed as a single total, they contribute to each of those systems. I have been doing exactly that this cycle at Col 285 Sector VN-Z b14-6, Putas and Vogulu—jumping between them and harvesting the first Thargoid I encounter, then doing a delivery run afterwards regardless of the combination.

Selling samples works, but to a much lesser extent as I understand.

The sample has no effect until sold, and said effect is very powerful. I demonstrated it to a long-time AX pilot earlier this cycle at Col 285 Sector TS-Z b14-4, where one harvest of 64 Cyclops samples moved the system 8%. A dead Basilisk was also involved at the start, though this had still given no movement prior to selling the samples.

Personally the fact that tissue sampling in-system alone seems to have an effect[1] smells a bit like a bug, when that effect seems to be on-parity with killing intys... but w/e.

It was announced and added by Frontier, and listed openly on the Galaxy map as a possible action for Alert systems. It may be unintended that it works in Invasion and Control also, insofar as it is not listed, but it works for now.

Ah, so it's the act of collecting the sample which is significant, it doesn't matter what you do with it afterwards?

It needs to reach a Rescue megaship and be sold at the Commodities market.

...? In another system?

Yes! Tracking of the cargo origin system was introduced quite proudly and specifically for this purpose.

 

[Jmanis]

Yes! Tracking of the cargo origin system was introduced quite proudly and specifically for this purpose.

Ah, so this was all in Frameshift live, not any patch notes?

 

[Aleks Zuno]

Ah, so this was all in Frameshift live, not any patch notes?

Both! From Frameshift Live #24:

We are having some new activities which are going to be contributing; salvage activities—at the moment, players have the ability to pick up and find in some scenarios things like black boxes or escape pods, or they can take tissue samples from different Thargoids. Now, what will happen is if players collect those in a system and then hand them in at a rescue ship, the system that the salvage was collected from will receive a bonus in pushing the Thargoids back. That is irrespective of what rescue ship you hand it in to, but it does have to be a rescue ship.

It is the system that it is picked up from, which is really cool. We have actually had to put in some tech for tracking that, because we realised we had never actually done that before. Everything was always about where you handed stuff in, and not where you picked it up from.

From Update 14.02:

Salvaging and then safely recovering Black Boxes and Escape Pods, obtaining and delivering Tissue Samples now all contribute towards the progress bar and resist the invasion in the location they were collected, when handed in to a rescue megaship.

 

[Jmanis]

Both! From Frameshift Live #24:


From Update 14.02:

Thanks... I missed all of that... derp...

 

[Tassier]

I've been trying to change over from combat to sampling but I'm finding it quite a challenge, hoping for some pointers.

I don't have access to a Carrier, Cutter or Corvette so in order to fit a 7A multi limpet controller I'm stuck with Anaconda or Type 9/10. I've gone for the Anaconda.

I'm also not great at cold orbiting so have gone down the route of taking a fighter to try to distract the Interceptor, which does work to some extent but limits my SCBs.

My full build is here:
EDSY

I've been working here, it was 2% before I started yesterday (have delivered 26 Cyclops, 8 Basilisk and 1 Medusa sample):
Hyades Sector DQ-O b6-4 Alert 10% — Taranis 29 Ly, empty

The way I've been working is jump here first, then jump back and forth between here and a Thargoid controlled system, waiting for the hyperdiction when jumping out from here.

When I'm hyperdicted leaving the Alert system I launch fighter, destroy the swarm (much easier having 3 flaks), then launch 8 research limpets and scan the interceptor.
Once they return launch a second load of limpets and then destroy first heart (to avoid aggro'ing the interceptor).
From this point rinse and repeat, spamming my SCB's when needed, letting the caustic sink absorb the damage when it happens (as I'm too slow to outrun), and using the odd repair limpet when I remember.

If I'm hyperdicted by a Basilisk or Medusa then I've found I don't have the firepower to kill a heart so will bail once I have some samples.

If I get hyperdicted by a Hydra or two interceptors then I bail very quickly, leaving the fighter to its death. The heatsink helps here to hide me.

Last night I picked up 12 samples from one Cyclops, then 13 from the next, I'm still to cash these in at the rescue ship.

Any other tips will be greatfully received

 

[Brrokk]

I've been trying to change over from combat to sampling but I'm finding it quite a challenge, hoping for some pointers.

I don't have access to a Carrier, Cutter or Corvette so in order to fit a 7A multi limpet controller I'm stuck with Anaconda or Type 9/10. I've gone for the Anaconda.

I'm also not great at cold orbiting so have gone down the route of taking a fighter to try to distract the Interceptor, which does work to some extent but limits my SCBs.

My full build is here:
EDSY

I've been working here, it was 2% before I started yesterday (have delivered 26 Cyclops, 8 Basilisk and 1 Medusa sample):
Hyades Sector DQ-O b6-4 Alert 10% — Taranis 29 Ly, empty

The way I've been working is jump here first, then jump back and forth between here and a Thargoid controlled system, waiting for the hyperdiction when jumping out from here.

When I'm hyperdicted leaving the Alert system I launch fighter, destroy the swarm (much easier having 3 flaks), then launch 8 research limpets and scan the interceptor.
Once they return launch a second load of limpets and then destroy first heart (to avoid aggro'ing the interceptor).
From this point rinse and repeat, spamming my SCB's when needed, letting the caustic sink absorb the damage when it happens (as I'm too slow to outrun), and using the odd repair limpet when I remember.

If I'm hyperdicted by a Basilisk or Medusa then I've found I don't have the firepower to kill a heart so will bail once I have some samples.

If I get hyperdicted by a Hydra or two interceptors then I bail very quickly, leaving the fighter to its death. The heatsink helps here to hide me.

Last night I picked up 12 samples from one Cyclops, then 13 from the next, I'm still to cash these in at the rescue ship.

Any other tips will be greatfully received

Clipper?

 

[yttrbio]

If you bail before your shield goes down, replace the module reinforcement packages with more research limpet controllers or SCBs, and make sure you put 4 pips to SYS. How effective are you at dodging the main cannon? If not very, you may want to ditch the heat sinks and replace it with another shield booster. A shield like that should be able to tank a hydra long enough to high wake out. You can replace the shutdown field neutralizer with another shield booster, unless you are dropping the target down to the last heart. Make sure to move towards finished limpets to recover them faster, and stop rotating when they try to go into your cargo bay, and you should be able to get 4, or even 5 waves of limpets out against a cyclops.

One other thing you may want to try, just to see if this works better for you, is to replace ALL your multicannons with flak launchers, and thin out the swarm even after the cyclops enrages, instead of trying to eliminate the hearts to extend time. This lets you drop the xeno scanner and caustic sink and take yet more shield boosters, and you don't have to dodge or tank the lightning attack (which can sometimes make it hard to recover limpets). Just make sure you know when it's time to go.

You can also launch the research limpets before fighting the swarm to get more limpet time. There is usually enough time to get all 8 off before the swarm is on you, but you can at least get half regardless.

 

[DemiserofD]

In my testing this week, it seemed as if it took about 8 orthrus kills in order to progress the bar one tick. Generally speaking, the best way to get them, is to relog Farm signal Sources when you find it. Just remember that you need to jump out from the signal Source in order for the server to register it.

I also tried blowing up probes to see if that made any difference, but even 19 of them was not enough to move the bar a single tick, so the effect, if any, is fairly minimal. Next week I will try selling them to the mega ship, instead.

 

[Tassier]

If you bail before your shield goes down, replace the module reinforcement packages with more research limpet controllers or SCBs, and make sure you put 4 pips to SYS. How effective are you at dodging the main cannon? If not very, you may want to ditch the heat sinks and replace it with another shield booster. A shield like that should be able to tank a hydra long enough to high wake out. You can replace the shutdown field neutralizer with another shield booster, unless you are dropping the target down to the last heart. Make sure to move towards finished limpets to recover them faster, and stop rotating when they try to go into your cargo bay, and you should be able to get 4, or even 5 waves of limpets out against a cyclops.

One other thing you may want to try, just to see if this works better for you, is to replace ALL your multicannons with flak launchers, and thin out the swarm even after the cyclops enrages, instead of trying to eliminate the hearts to extend time. This lets you drop the xeno scanner and caustic sink and take yet more shield boosters, and you don't have to dodge or tank the lightning attack (which can sometimes make it hard to recover limpets). Just make sure you know when it's time to go.

You can also launch the research limpets before fighting the swarm to get more limpet time. There is usually enough time to get all 8 off before the swarm is on you, but you can at least get half regardless.

Thanks yttrbio, that gives me lots of options

I'll work through some tweaks and see what sticks.