it already has been, it seems. The progress bars in HIP 23716 and 20485 are already moving significantly in just about 12 hours, despite "strikes", groups "pulling out" and a general plethora of tantrums.
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- Thread starter Ralph Vargr
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Don't suppose you have a screenshot of the progress in 20485? I've not been in game this evening.
Absolutely! The easy win is just increase the rate at which thargoids expand their territory, but allow player progress to carry over. This can be tuned until we end up with a state where players are able to draw lines in the sand around a few chosen systems, but are unable to entirely prevent the thargoid advance - if that's what FDev want to happen.
I don't think it's unreasonable for FDev to be painting broad strokes of history - e.g. that the thargoids advance for <an amount of time>, <some events happen> and there is <a resolution> some time late next year. Players are, of course, not the only "people" in the canon galaxy, there's millions of military and militia personnel involved, and it's not absurd to say that we the commanders don't have that much power to affect the pace of things.
But the fine details should be ours for gameplay reasons. Maybe the thargoids try to capture systems towards Sol - and players band together and absolutely refuse to let them get close, sacrificing more distant areas of the bubble. That is an outcome FDev need to accept and not force their own vision. But they can tune it so that a major defensive simply isn't viable in multiple regions. If we keep Sol, we lose Achenar and Cubeo, and that's just something that falls out of the numbers. FDev can decide that at least one major system must fall, but leave it to players to decide which. And then we get a genuinely interactive, evolving story.
(It's also possible that we wouldn't pull in the same direction and all major systems fall because we divide our strength. That's a story as well, but it is one that FDev should allow to unfold.)
FDev did say they would tune it, and I suspect they have. Tbh, they should have tuned it every day of the last 7, artificially inflating the player response in the favoured systems so so that we were able to recapture 1-2 to prove we can and recognise that community engagement has been so high. It'd still be an overall loss given the new maelstrom, but it would have avoided this mass-disengagement. Obviously they should do this in total blackout, not giving us peeks behind the curtain and saying they're cheating on our behalf! The magic fades very easily if they tell us they intervened. They shouldn't have told us they would be tuning it, really.
Here you go. Hot off the press, captures two minutes ago. It is very little in 20485, but it is noticable.
Excellent.
So it's two bars in HIP 20485 and 3 in HIP 23716 from looking at this.
I still looks quite difficult but definitely doable if we focus on one System. I suspect over the next few weeks it'll become even easier as the last Thargoid Maelstroms arrive. I even suspect it'll be possible to defend multiple Systems in a week eventually.
This seems like exactly the sort of mechanic by which allowing a small group to focus on the systems closest or most important to them over a course of multiple weeks in order to get some progress locked in for the main liberation force to make a big push would be perfect.
If fdev wants more of us to engage the enemy, remove the grinds we have to slog through just to prepare to fight.
They are... New Enhanced AX multi cannons (turreted and fixed) have been unlocked already (not in the game yet though) and the current CG is for Enhanced AX Turreted missile racks.
That said, if you want the good weapons you need to visit the Guardian sites and put in some hours there. There is no quick fix for those weapons. Everyone else have done it, so why should you not have to do it?
One bar in 20485 only tells me: drop it. Go do something else or help 23716 until it becomes clearer whether 100% can be achieved. If there is doubt after the weekend: drop it. Yay. So much fixing.
The first one shows less than 10% in 1 day. The other one even less.
I have over 7,000 hours, and I have not done it. I find trading and exploration more fun.
True, but that's less than 10% by Thursday evening without as much focus as last week. Based on normal CG activity curves, 10% by Friday morning would generally be enough to complete the goal by the end of the week.
Yep. It seems to be much more winnable now. I'd even go so far to say both Systems could be defended successfully by next Thursday but I'd still focus on one over the other just to make sure.
Do people understand now what other people mean when they talk about grind? It's stuff like this.
You don't have to join in, it is entirely up to the individual, you know.
How dare you!
Well, as the last time they played was 6 years ago, I didn't think they would be jumping in to play just because the game had something interesting enough to even have me doing AX combat for fun!
Was the grind even that bad 6 years ago?