I went and looked for Thargoids…

[Sophokles Logimo]

… and found none outside the Coalsack Nebula, Witchhead Nebula, and the Pleiades. That puzzled me - in my imagination, the Thargoids had a "bubble" of their own, much larger than humanity's. Instead, they seem to have three small bubbles, and not much beyond that? (If anyone knows of a map of Thargoid settlements throughout the galaxy, please let me know.)

Plus, attacks in the coalsack nebula recently were not supported by attacks in the Pleiades or in the withchead nebula, IIRC. This seems to indicate that the Thargoids are extremely… balkanized, with several independent and possibly, given the distance, not even interacting factions.

So I wonder: What is the galactic situation of Thargoid populations, as far as we know? Are we, possibly, not facing an overpowering ancient species, but a bunch of degenerated, primitive offshoots of that race? What is limiting their expansion, if they have been out there for so long? What could limit them like this? Are they, possibly, hiding in those nebulas and star clusters? If so, from whom?

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

Plus, attacks in the coalsack nebula recently were not supported by attacks in the Pleiades or in the withchead nebula, IIRC.

The most recent attack included attacks on settlements in both the Coalsack and Witch Head nebulae.

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

Thanks. Not in the Pleiades, though, so the point about different factions still stands.

But that's not even the main point of the post. Wouldn't you say that they are remarkably rare in the galaxy, considering their age?

 

[Speedcuffs]

I thought they were mainly in Witch Space?

 

[Hooplah]

Short version go to the the Pleiades Sector and meet 'n greet lots of Thargoids. Long version we don't know their home planets maybe many thousands of light years away and they just decided they didn't want any other species to figure that out. Then maybe they don't need home planets but work as a hive. Think bees and the Borg. Seems likely...

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

Consider the following computation: Let us say an adult Thargoid reproduces every 100 years (so after that time, there are now 2 Thargoids where before there was one; a remarkably conservative estimate). And let us further assume Thargoids started in the year 2 million BCE with 1 Thargoid. How many Thargoids should we see in the galaxy today? About 2^20,000, or about 4 x 10^6020. THAT IS roughly 10^6009 Thargoids PER STAR SYSTEM IN THE GALAXY.

So they would reach the galaxy's carrying capacity pretty quickly. Obviously, though, they have not at all reached such levels of population. The vast empty stretches of space between their known territories tell us that something is severely limiting their expansion. And it's not the Guardians, because they have been dead for quite a while.

 

[Gwyther]

Are they, possibly, hiding in those nebulas and star clusters? If so, from whom?

They are probably hiding from that war mongering, 'shoot first ask questions later' race that evolved from apes on a planet called Earth.

I think they are called Humans or Earthlings or Terrans, or something like that.

They have been know to ransack Thargoid worlds and steal their meta alloys.

No wonder some Thargoids hide themselves away while other's fight back against those invading Humans.

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

That is a rather recent development, by Thargoid standards. What are a few hundred years when a species has been around for a million or two?

Something else must be somewhere out there, something that has the power to cull their numbers. Something we haven't encountered yet.

 

[SergMx]

Consider the following computation: Let us say an adult Thargoid reproduces every 100 years (so after that time, there are now 2 Thargoids where before there was one; a remarkably conservative estimate). And let us further assume Thargoids started in the year 2 million BCE with 1 Thargoid. How many Thargoids should we see in the galaxy today? About 2^20,000, or about 4 x 10^6020. THAT IS roughly 10^6009 Thargoids PER STAR SYSTEM IN THE GALAXY.

So they would reach the galaxy's carrying capacity pretty quickly. Obviously, though, they have not at all reached such levels of population. The vast empty stretches of space between their known territories tell us that something is severely limiting their expansion. And it's not the Guardians, because they have been dead for quite a while.

As far as I remember the codex says that they reproduce from the uterus. (mother)

 

[DikbutDaGrate]

Well, what we find are bioengineered ships and surface drones, however it is not clear yet whether players have been able to encounter the Thargoids themselves proper thus far.

In terms of expansion, all the Thargoids do really is sprinkle barnacles on uninhabited worlds without atmospheres and occasionally come back to nibble on the meta-alloys that crop out of the barnacle sites.

With the sole exception of Thargoid scouts, us players have yet to meet any Thargoid forces which are immediately hostile upon contact. And Scouts don't hyperdict people, so... its humans who are required to initiate contact with them in the first place, otherwise, they go about their business.

Occasionally FDEV "tells us" that the Thargoids attack outposts, and we get logs and stuff about it. However, based on the combined totality of player experiences, it would seem much more probable that the interceptors simply showed up at those sites and started scanning things, which caused people to freak and open fire. It's possible even that the entire "attack" on the human bubble toward Sol was similar in this regard, and wasn't even a "planned attack" at all, but simply an expedition and planned study of the human sphere. The Thargoids might not have even fully understood that the humans would respond so harshly.

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

Well, what we find are bioengineered ships and surface drones, however it is not clear yet whether players have been able to encounter the Thargoids themselves proper thus far.

In terms of expansion, all the Thargoids do really is sprinkle barnacles on uninhabited worlds without atmospheres and occasionally come back to nibble on the meta-alloys that crop out of the barnacle sites.

With the sole exception of Thargoid scouts, us players have yet to meet any Thargoid forces which are immediately hostile upon contact. And Scouts don't hyperdict people, so... its humans who are required to initiate contact with them in the first place, otherwise, they go about their business.

Occasionally FDEV "tells us" that the Thargoids attack outposts, and we get logs and stuff about it. However, based on the combined totality of player experiences, it would seem much more probable that the interceptors simply showed up at those sites and started scanning things, which caused people to freak and open fire. It's possible even that the entire "attack" on the human bubble toward Sol was similar in this regard, and wasn't even a "planned attack" at all, but simply an expedition and planned study of the human sphere. The Thargoids might not have even fully understood that the humans would respond so harshly.

But... does this answer any questions as to why they are not everywhere?

 

[SergMx]

But... does this answer any questions as to why they are not everywhere?

They don't have Fuel Scoops.

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

They have had MILLIONS OF YEARS to settle the galaxy. MILLIONS OF YEARS. Do the math, assuming basically any reproduction rate you like.

The fact that they are not EVERYWHERE can only be explained by an unknown factor culling their numbers.

 

[DikbutDaGrate]

They have had MILLIONS OF YEARS to settle the galaxy. MILLIONS OF YEARS. Do the math, assuming basically any reproduction rate you like.

The fact that they are not EVERYWHERE can only be explained by an unknown factor culling their numbers.

Or they just don't expand, and each queen has a population cap. And/or all Thargoids proper are already dead.

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

Or they just don't expand, and each queen has a population cap.

Species that do not expand do not survive long enough to reach the stars.

And/or all Thargoids proper are already dead.

That would just slightly shift the question from "who is killing them" to "who killed them".

However, the real reason is likely the usual Occam's razor, "because it would cost money" in order to answer that question.

Unsurprisingly, it may not be in FDEV's financial interest to answer these sorts of questions, as it would involve having to pay their writers, pay their developers, hold the meetings and consequently pay the people to attend those meetings, etc and so on.

I am pretty sure that they know the answer, and at some point in the future we will have some kind of doomsday machine go after players, after some explorer waked them up, or something like that.

 

[DikbutDaGrate]

I am pretty sure that they know the answer, and at some point in the future we will have some kind of doomsday machine go after players, after some explorer waked them up, or something like that.

That would be rad.

 

[SergMx]

If you look at the Codex, the Guardians kicked the Targoids out a long time ago.
Again, the Codex shows that the Guardian settlements are much larger than the human and Targoid settlements combined.

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

If you look at the Codex, the Guardians kicked the Targoids out a long time ago.

Are you completely sure that you grasp the "millions of years" argument?

 

[SergMx]

Are you completely sure that you grasp the "millions of years" argument?

Yes, I understand, and that the galaxy is billions of years old.

 

[Sophokles Logimo]

And the war between the Thargoids and the Guardians happened millions of years ago. Now I would suggest to just take basically any assumption you seem fit on their reproduction rate, and do the math on how many should be there by now.

No, really, fire up a spreadsheet and try some things.