Is anyone fighting in the Thargoid war, and how so?

[Kayvan]

Well, if I may give you some advice: mb try some smaller ships first. They are quicker, more maneuverable, more fun to fly, and less expensive to replace if (or when) you get shot up.

Vulture - to dip your toes in AX combat a little bit. Outfit it with two Large EAX MCs and go scout hunting.
Asp Explorer - for cargo or passenger runs. Sure it doesn't hold as many pax as the large ships, but it's nimble and doesn't get stuck in the mail slot.
Chieftain - when you want to try your hand at Interceptor combat. Outfit with 2 large EAX MCs, 1 Flak, and 1 or more small Thermal Vent Beam.

Any ship used for AX operations should at least be outfitted with G3 Dirty drives. This engineering level is low-grind and quick to achieve; Farseer can tune your engines right away and the required materials are low-grade and easy to get. Ideally your boost speed should be >450m/s, so you can run away from any goids.

 

[FryaDuck]

What is EDOMH?

Elite Dangerous Odyssey Materials Helper a mod (3rd party) by jinnxed, I linked it. It provides info on your current inventory for both Ship and Ground Engineering (Horizons and Odyssey) items, Techbroker Blueprints including Guardian, Modified Guardian and Human Modules/Weapons for your ship, Synthesis, Experimental Efffects, Optional Internals, Core Internals Utilities, Hardpoints and Engineer unlocks (Horizons and Odyssey). It's a must have for any intrepid Commander.

That must have been over 300 passenger missions.

929 at current counting, see previous post image

 

[Shabine]

I have always been struggling to get materials and never got far with engineering due to a lack of materials, and I don't plan on making the 300+ jumps to travel 5000LYs into one direction and back just to unlock an engineer. That's only ridiculous, and if I did unlock him, I won't have the materials anyway and it's only more struggle. Others have more ridiculous requirements. Gathering raw materials seems to even have become far more difficult and time consuming because the materials are now spread out all over the planet and that's just too much ground to cover.

You need to look up some guides on mat farming and learn the relog trick. For example, you want all the raw mats you will ever need for engineering? Go to the brain tree forest on Volantis-1 B3FA and just collect hundreds of selenium, chromium and zinc. You can trade the selenium for whatever you need in the raw category.

Wait. You know you can trade materials, right?

Use the relog trick at the Jameson wreck for encoded and at high grade emissions in boom systems, and all your mat gathering is done.

I could only get the Guardian FSD and the place I got the materials for that from probably didn't have other things I'd need for other Guardian stuff.

It did. You can just keep reloading and running the site over and over again for as many Guardian materials and blueprints as you want.

I was never able to figure the Guardian things out and some of the information even lead to places where there were no sites or sites that don't have the materials.

How to unlock Guardian module in Elite Dangerous — CMDRs ToolBox

Guardian modules are hybrid modules created from a combination of human and guardian technology. They can be unlocked at a guardian tech broker, after which they will be available to buy just as any other module.

cmdrs-toolbox.com

Stations need to adjust to the increase in ship size and make their entrances wider.

 

[Fizzatron]

LOL. Modshards it is then.

Distributor draw may be an issue... Though I just saw that I have an 8C Power Plant, soo.. off to Shinrarta I go (again)

 

[Radixbase]

The T10 is one of my favourite ships. It doesn't carry enough passengers, though, unless you sacrifice shields.


Was it set on fire?

yeah it was the very first station ever attacked by thargoids, a long time ago.
I don't have any screenshots from it, too excited at the time to remember, but someone did a good video:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqSHKcny8Z0&t=193s&ab_channel=SideStrafe

 

[limpetdwarf]

Well, if I may give you some advice: mb try some smaller ships first. They are quicker, more maneuverable, more fun to fly, and less expensive to replace if (or when) you get shot up.

For combat, I currently settled on a Fer De Lance. With some engineering it's really nice.

Vulture - to dip your toes in AX combat a little bit. Outfit it with two Large EAX MCs and go scout hunting.

I think I haven't tried out a vulture yet. Somehow it never looked interesting to try one.

Asp Explorer - for cargo or passenger runs. Sure it doesn't hold as many pax as the large ships, but it's nimble and doesn't get stuck in the mail slot.

Ugh, I have done too many passenger missions in one to make money to still want to fly one. It's a really nice ship, though, yet not my favourite by a long shot.

Chieftain - when you want to try your hand at Interceptor combat. Outfit with 2 large EAX MCs, 1 Flak, and 1 or more small Thermal Vent Beam.

I don't have any engineering for lasers yet. I used a Chieftain for a while and I still have it in storage. I got it before I knew about engineering and it has no engineering at all.

Any ship used for AX operations should at least be outfitted with G3 Dirty drives. This engineering level is low-grind and quick to achieve; Farseer can tune your engines right away and the required materials are low-grade and easy to get. Ideally your boost speed should be >450m/s, so you can run away from any goids.

Lol, gathering all the materials is far from low-grind. I'm out of raw materials now and you can't find them on planet surfaces in reasonable amounts anymore. I don't remember how I got what I had, I must have done something special to get some raw materials a long time ago. All other materials are basically out as well. I'll still be busy with engineering for a very long time, and trying to fight Thargoids is just too dangerous anyway.

I'm still curious what abandoned and attacked stations look like but before I'll try to see one, I have a lot more engineering to do. Like I said, the war will most likely be over before I get there. Engineering and making money takes a lot of time.

 

[limpetdwarf]

Elite Dangerous Odyssey Materials Helper a mod (3rd party) by jinnxed, I linked it. It provides info on your current inventory for both Ship and Ground Engineering (Horizons and Odyssey) items, Techbroker Blueprints including Guardian, Modified Guardian and Human Modules/Weapons for your ship, Synthesis, Experimental Efffects, Optional Internals, Core Internals Utilities, Hardpoints and Engineer unlocks (Horizons and Odyssey). It's a must have for any intrepid Commander.

It sounds nice, though I don't see any instructions on it. It has sources and Debian packages etc., so how does that work with the Elite Commander Pack from Steam running on Linux?

It might help with knowing which materials are needed. But the problem is getting them.

929 at current counting, see previous post image

Wow, you must really like doing these passenger missions

That the rescue ships are so ridiculously far away from the evacuation sites annoys me and that kinda takes the fun out pretty quickly with all the flying and all the being destroyed in docking entrances. Their placement and the poor payment only shows that there's no real interest in rescueing anyone.

These rescue ships need to go to the stations so that they can be directly connected through tubes (tunnels) for the people to rush through, accompanied by battleships for protection and good payment for commanders who are willing to defeat small Thargoids. Evacuting a station can't take longer than between 1 and 4 days, depending on population.

And how's removing the people supposed to prevent the Thargoids from taking over a system? If anything, it might make it easier for them.

 

[limpetdwarf]

You need to look up some guides on mat farming and learn the relog trick. For example, you want all the raw mats you will ever need for engineering? Go to the brain tree forest on Volantis-1 B3FA and just collect hundreds of selenium, chromium and zinc. You can trade the selenium for whatever you need in the raw category.

I seem to vageuly remember that I have done something like that a long time ago. I would explain how I got some raw materials. I found another guide[1] yesterday and am planning to go there. I don't know if that's up to date, though.

[1]: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...terials-bins-using-crystalline-shards.481235/

Wait. You know you can trade materials, right?

Yes, and engineering takes tons of materials, so you can't keep up with the demand, trading or not.

Use the relog trick at the Jameson wreck for encoded and at high grade emissions in boom systems, and all your mat gathering is done.

I went to various signal sources and shot down wanted ships in RES and got a few materials there. It's fun, and it's very time consuming and the few materials you can get from that don't last long at all.

It did. You can just keep reloading and running the site over and over again for as many Guardian materials and blueprints as you want.

I did that for hours and the only thing I got was the FSD booster. I think for other items I would have had to find other Guardian sites to get those, but I could only barely find the one site that allowed me to get the booster, and that's only after someone told me where I could try. The first site I was at was unsuited, and you have no chance to find others. Also you can carry only a few items, so you have to keep doing it over and over again. IIRC, the blueprint for the booster was extremely difficut to get and I think it's the only one I managed to get.

 

[FryaDuck]

It sounds nice, though I don't see any instructions on it. It has sources and Debian packages etc., so how does that work with the Elite Commander Pack from Steam running on Linux?

It might help with knowing which materials are needed. But the problem is getting them.

EDOMH is a third party tool that works in Windows it parses the .log file (which has the data for your inventory). Perhaps go to the Github forum for the mod and ask the author jinxxed. I used the mod to allow me to easily replenish my stocks of ship engineering materials (and on foot materials for that matter) at a glance.

Wow, you must really like doing these passenger missions

That the rescue ships are so ridiculously far away from the evacuation sites annoys me and that kinda takes the fun out pretty quickly with all the flying and all the being destroyed in docking entrances. Their placement and the poor payment only shows that there's no real interest in rescueing anyone.

These rescue ships need to go to the stations so that they can be directly connected through tubes (tunnels) for the people to rush through, accompanied by battleships for protection and good payment for commanders who are willing to defeat small Thargoids. Evacuting a station can't take longer than between 1 and 4 days, depending on population.

And how's removing the people supposed to prevent the Thargoids from taking over a system? If anything, it might make it easier for them.

I've earnt 6.2 billion so far doing the evacs (including materials replenishment). TBH it's easy mode if you run evacs from Alert systems to the rescue ships (fully engineered FSD for jump range and Thrusters {drag drives}). For me it's 4-6 jumps to and from with a 20+mil payout at the end, perhaps one interdiction per run, the more jumps (6) the higher the payout. So in 1.5 hours of, mostly boring, travel you earn ~100 mil. I don't bother with Invasion systems too much risk bumping into docks etc.

Additionally, as the runs are unchallenging, I use super cruise and auto docking computers. You can run from goids if you can get over 500m/s in normal. Don't forget heat sinks.

 

[Flimley]

No I'm not fighting the war. ....It's boring. Shooting at npc ships is the same as shooting at Thargoids. It's all the same. Samey same same.
it's just not compelling game play for me.

Flimley

 

[limpetdwarf]

EDOMH is a third party tool that works in Windows it parses the .log file (which has the data for your inventory).

Then why does it have Debian packages?

I wouldn't mind to provide data for 3rd party tools as well, but I have no way to do that. I asked on this forum a long time ago and there was no way.

Perhaps go to the Github forum for the mod and ask the author jinxxed.

Github blocked me like a decade ago for no reason and refused to do anything about it. I hosted my stuff on my own server for while until I couldn't get a static IP anymore. It's not my loss.

I used the mod to allow me to easily replenish my stocks of ship engineering materials (and on foot materials for that matter) at a glance.

You make it sound like you can just somehow get the materials you need. I just found that the place mentioned in the guide I found is over 1500LYs away, so screw that. Volantis is not even being found on the map. Perhaps I can find a guide that's useful ...

I've earnt 6.2 billion so far doing the evacs

So you got only about 6888888 credits for about 8 jumps per mission plus the risk of being destroyed in the docking entrance, flying a ship that is horrible to fly. I can bring out my T9 and make about 6 or 6.5 million with only one jump or even within the same system without being destroyed in the docking entrance, in a ship that is fun to fly. It's also faster that way.

(including materials replenishment). TBH it's easy mode if you run evacs from Alert systems to the rescue ships (fully engineered FSD for jump range and Thrusters {drag drives}). For me it's 4-6 jumps to and from with a 20+mil payout at the end,

Each run payed about only 15 million, if that much. And it's 4--8 jumps, i. e. tedious and time consuming. And it's extremely inefficient to rescue people like this.

perhaps one interdiction per run, the more jumps (6) the higher the payout.

Yes, for the first 2 runs it was 10 million per mission but I need materials. After that, it was only between 8 and 4.

So in 1.5 hours of, mostly boring, travel you earn ~100 mil. I don't bother with Invasion systems too much risk bumping into docks etc.

I didn't really make money with these missions. I made a little bit before the Anaconda was destroyed so I guess I broke even. I will not fly an Anaconda again unless I absolutely have to. Even the Anaconda carried only 136 passengers, and considering hundreds of thousands who need to be evacuated it's futile. The evacuation ships need to go to the stations.

Maybe it escapes you that my intention was helping the fight against the Thargoids. Seeing how the evacution ships are being kept so far away and only being able to carry a very few passengers in my ship hurts. I generally dislike inefficiency and this is one of the best examples of inefficiency I have seen, and there's nothing I could do about it. My intention was never to make money with it, but also seeing that doing it doesn't even pay well and that the very station I was trying to help out destroyed my ship is no incentive to keep doing this. I rather go back to doing things that are more fun instead.

Also, there's still no explanation why or how removing people from a system makes the Thargoids unable to take control of it. So what's the point?

Additionally, as the runs are unchallenging, I use super cruise and auto docking computers. You can run from goids if you can get over 500m/s in normal. Don't forget heat sinks.

I'm not using heat sinks and didn't need any, and I didn't need to be that fast. Besides, the Anaconda is awfully slow. I ditched all docking computers when one cost me over 30 million to rebuy after the docking computer managed to get my ship destroyed.

Yes, the passenger missions are not challenging. The biggest risk with the passenger missions is that your ship gets stuck in the docking entrance. So nothing speaks against finally bringing the rescue ships to the stations to actually rescue signifacant amounts of people. If we did that, the war might already be over because the Thargoids won't be able to take over any more systems and with time, we might have ships and weapons that have a fighting chance against them.

Or maybe even better, IIUC the stations have jump drives, which is how the one that ended up at an unreachable place far away got there when the drive malfunctioned. Why don't the stations just jump out and come back once the Thargoids figured that everyone has left?

 

[limpetdwarf]

Ok I couldn't find a guide for reasonably getting raw materials anywhere near the huge amounts required for engineering. Great, now I'm blocked from all further engineering.

 

[Kayvan]

Ok I couldn't find a guide for reasonably getting raw materials anywhere near the huge amounts required for engineering. Great, now I'm blocked from all further engineering.

Crashed Anaconda sites. There are a few around the Bubble. Koli Discii is a good location for that. You drive around in your buggy, shoot the cargo containers, collect the raw mats that pop up, and once you're through you relog and repeat.

 

[Radixbase]

Ok I couldn't find a guide for reasonably getting raw materials anywhere near the huge amounts required for engineering. Great, now I'm blocked from all further engineering.

are we still talking about doing rescue ops? because if so, you just need to engineer your fsd and thrusters.

You can get stuck in a min/max OCD loop with this stuff sometimes.

you just want to jump far and move fast. If you need shields, then yeah do shields. But just forget the big ships since you can't get them through the mail slot, and go with a Python. Pack it with economy passenger racks and GO!

PS: Passenger racks only go to size 6, and the python has the most internals for a medium ship, and none of them are military locked. so basically it's pretty darn close to the bigger ships, but easy to get through the slot.

Inara is your friend here. clicking on the mats will open a new page telling you where to get them.

Engineering:
FSD : Increased Range with mass manager
Felicity Farseer in Deciat

Frame Shift Drive - Increased range - blueprint | Elite:Dangerous | INARA

The companion site for Elite:Dangerous with the game database, market data, trade routes, outfitting, engineers, blueprints, crafting, Thargoid war, squadrons, logbooks, galleries, galaxy information and much more...

inara.cz

Thrusters: Dirty with Drag Drives"
Professor Palin in Arque

Blueprint [INARA - Elite:Dangerous]

The companion site for Elite:Dangerous. The game database, market data, trade routes, outfitting, engineers, blueprints, crafting, Thargoid war, squadrons, logbooks, galleries, galaxy information and much more...

inara.cz

Again, don't get hung up on the engineering, get those two things done and go. If you have a Krait, by the way, it uses the same internals. Python has 1 more size 6 internal slot than the Krait Mk 2

 

[FryaDuck]

Then why does it have Debian packages?

I'm unfamiliar with linux. I would ignore the first file link and go with the second .linux.zip file. Windows users should go with the third .portable.zip file.

I wouldn't mind to provide data for 3rd party tools as well, but I have no way to do that. I asked on this forum a long time ago and there was no way.

Here is a link to the latest V2.18 Tutorial of EDOMC

You make it sound like you can just somehow get the materials you need. I just found that the place mentioned in the guide I found is over 1500LYs away, so screw that. Volantis is not even being found on the map. Perhaps I can find a guide that's useful ...

For Encoded and Manufactured materials there are 6 types each with 5 grades. In your inventory you can have up to 300 Grade 1 (G1), 250 G2, 200 G3, 150 G4 and 100 G5. If you have 100 G5 in say Exquisite Focus Crystals (Manufactured) you can down trade those for more of the lower type. You can also up trade lower grades to higher but it costs a lot more. So when you select a Grade 5 material as a mission reward (with some credits and reputation) you can down trade it in that material type at a Materials trader at a station.

Here is a recommended guide to unlocking Engineers.

So you got only about 6888888 credits for about 8 jumps per mission plus the risk of being destroyed in the docking entrance, flying a ship that is horrible to fly. I can bring out my T9 and make about 6 or 6.5 million with only one jump or even within the same system without being destroyed in the docking entrance, in a ship that is fun to fly. It's also faster that way.

No, I don't fly in Invasion systems any more. I do Evacs from Alert systems (stations are fully operational no thargoids) and I use a docking computer. The rewards are no different with little risk.

Maybe it escapes you that my intention was helping the fight against the Thargoids. Seeing how the evacution ships are being kept so far away and only being able to carry a very few passengers in my ship hurts. I generally dislike inefficiency and this is one of the best examples of inefficiency I have seen, and there's nothing I could do about it. My intention was never to make money with it, but also seeing that doing it doesn't even pay well and that the very station I was trying to help out destroyed my ship is no incentive to keep doing this. I rather go back to doing things that are more fun instead.

Also, there's still no explanation why or how removing people from a system makes the Thargoids unable to take control of it. So what's the point?

The war against the Thargoids includes not only fighting them but also Supply, Evac and Recovery missions. Killing Orthrus in Alert systems will assist in preventing an Alert system transitioning to Invasion.

I'm not using heat sinks and didn't need any, and I didn't need to be that fast. Besides, the Anaconda is awfully slow. I ditched all docking computers when one cost me over 30 million to rebuy after the docking computer managed to get my ship destroyed.

Yikes

Yes, the passenger missions are not challenging. The biggest risk with the passenger missions is that your ship gets stuck in the docking entrance. So nothing speaks against finally bringing the rescue ships to the stations to actually rescue signifacant amounts of people. If we did that, the war might already be over because the Thargoids won't be able to take over any more systems and with time, we might have ships and weapons that have a fighting chance against them.

Yeah, that doesn't match with the Elite Dangerous grind. They would also need 500 rescue ships.

Or maybe even better, IIUC the stations have jump drives, which is how the one that ended up at an unreachable place far away got there when the drive malfunctioned. Why don't the stations just jump out and come back once the Thargoids figured that everyone has left?

Only Jaques Station in Colonia has engines the rest are built in situ without them.

 

[Shabine]

Ok I couldn't find a guide for reasonably getting raw materials anywhere near the huge amounts required for engineering. Great, now I'm blocked from all further engineering.

You aren't blocked from engineering. You just aren't doing it in an efficient way.

1500 ly is nothing in this game. Engineer your FSD to max range and use your FSD booster, and Volantis-1 is only a few jumps outside the bubble. You hang out there until you max out your selenium, chromium and zinc. Then you start trading down for everything you need. Your encoded materials all come from Jameson, and your manufactured materials come from HGE (high grade emissions) signals. Find Imperial or Fed systems with high populations and in the current state "None". You just farm the hell out of them for Imperial Shielding and Core Dynamics Composites, and then again, start trading down. When you relog at a Guardian site, keep running the pylon mini game to get multiple blueprints so that you can just unlock multiple Guardian modules all at once. Same for the weapon site.

Use the tool I provided. It lets you see exactly where to go for everything you need.

All that said, engineering is a long and difficult process. Unlocking the engineers is a pain, and you may have to go out for materials more than once, but this is how we squeeze the best performance out of our ships.

 

[Wullail]

What is research sampling? Somehow capture a Thargoid and shove probes into it?


Well, there you go. Before I could get involved, the war will be long over because it requires long term grinding to get all the needed equipment. And I've been reading somewhere that the Thargoids have resorted to somehow corroding and shooting anything Guardian so that Guardian stuff doesn't work anymore. Maybe it's not true, I have no idea.

Research sampling, you can unlock a limpet controller that when shot at a goid will return a sample (corrosive so you need anti-corrosive storage on ship)...

The corroding of guardian tech happens inside the maelstroms because of the corrosive clouds,, standard fights outside the maelstrom don't have this issue.

 

[limpetdwarf]

Crashed Anaconda sites. There are a few around the Bubble. Koli Discii is a good location for that. You drive around in your buggy, shoot the cargo containers, collect the raw mats that pop up, and once you're through you relog and repeat.

Thanks, maybe that's an option. Perhaps I try it tomorrow.

 

[limpetdwarf]

are we still talking about doing rescue ops? because if so, you just need to engineer your fsd and thrusters.

I've stopped doing that. Like I said, my intention was to contribute and that would mean to evacuate refugees in great numbers. To do that, the rescue ships need to come to the stations rather than staying about 150lys away. At least they need to come to the system closest to the system which is currently being evacuated.

So I decided I wanted to work on my Federation rank instead. But there's extremely bad advice here[1]: It suggests to do "Passenger missions for Federation-aligned factions at damaged stations" to improve your rank. By all means, don't try that! With the currently available technology the only thing you can do is not to go anywhere near Thargoids. They take away your shields, eat your hull and are too fast to run from. They'll keep interdicting you and sooner than later they shoot you down. There's nothing you could do about it.

Before we have the means that give us a fighting chance against the Thargoids I can only stay away from them, and I can only recommend that everyone does the same.

And BTW, the turreted AX multicannons don't work right. With them installed, none of the turrets (both normal and AX) fire at all when set to 'fire at will'. Maybe it's because they're experimental, but it's bad.


[1]: https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Federation/Ranks

 

[limpetdwarf]

Research sampling, you can unlock a limpet controller that when shot at a goid will return a sample (corrosive so you need anti-corrosive storage on ship)...

And how is anyone supposed to know this? It doesn't matter, though, the ridiculous requirements to get one of these containers make it so that I'll never get one anyway.