Is the Thargoid story line only for groups and especialy gifted solo players?

[whostolemyname]

Hi,

in October and November 2017 I outfitted an Anaconda with experimental weapons and lots of armor and had like 15 -20 tries on killing Thargoid cyclops interceptors. Tried a lot of different setups but never managed to kill the thing solo. Usually I got out alive with 10% hull, but once in the end of my tries the Thargoid got enraged I think and zeroed me from 50% in 3 seconds.
Best score I had was 3 hearts I think (with lvl 3 AX multicannon turrets).

So I wonder, did anything change by now? Is it possible for an average solo player with a good ship to take part in the Thargoid hunting?

For my part I pretty much gave up on it. I watched the youtube videos of players doing the solo kill even with turrets, but by the time I outfitted my ship accordingly, the thargoids had adapted (e.g. they stay out of reach of the turrets with their insane speed when a heart is exerted). And I'm afraid I lack the skills for using fixed weapons (Wish they had gimbaled versions).

Any advice on this?
Thanks!
Cmdr StBonifaz

 

[Crank Larson]

I believe that Thargoid scouts are relatively easy. The important word there being relative.

Not being able to destroy a Thargoid does not mean that you can't get involved, though, so the answer to your thread title is no.

 

[racer1]

Worth giving it another try probably with the conda. I've done it in mine and only consider myself fairly average.

Did you have much HRP/MRP? Was it fully engineered?

You can now get C3 weapons, not sure if they came after you last played or not and there is some corrosive resitant armour.

 

[whostolemyname]

Thanks for the answers. Yes I filled it up with HRP/MRP + Auto repair module. Everything engineered, but not top rolls. I'n my most successful attempts I used 4 C3 AX-multi cannon turrets. Also had an AX Fighter mostly for swarm distraction. Could get 3 hearts down before I had to bail out.
A couple of days later that build didn't work at all anymore because the Cyclops just stayed out of turret range as soon as a heart was exerted (And killed me with ease). Did you use fixed weapons?

Apart from that I
- looked at a base, got inside and activated the beautiful galaxy map
- scratched skin peaces of thargoids with research probes
- rescued poor people from attacked stations

But if there is something else to do besides that and trying to beat one of the ugly aliens, I guess I'll have to do a little research.

But to the first point if it's only for groups or especially gifted solo players I like to mention, that the community goals involving Federal Pilots bounties had like 100-200 Participants, while other community goals have like 10k participants. Which makes me wonder....

 

[Red Anders]

I'm sorry to be that guy but I have to point this out. Please don't interpret it as some sort of judgement because it isn't, it's just a factual statement.

You did take part in it. You just didn't kill one of them. I happen to think it's great that the game has content which is just too difficult for some players and extremely challenging for others.

Did you have fun during your 15-20 tries at killing one? Surely that's the important thing.

 

[Garand1987]

You really need to tank out a ship and equip AX and gaurdian stuff to take on the targs. Scouts individually are easy, can be done in numbers solo if you’ve got really great shields (their weapons are pretty weak but in numbers they’ll chew up a non engineered ship in no time). For the swarm of thargons the flower ships spit out you really want a remote chaff launcher. It confuses them and the a couple of shots takes them out and there won’t be another for several mins. One thing that might work is taking along some Imperial slaves. I saw a video where a guy rolled up to an agroed flower ship and jettisoned an imperial slave, the ship stopped its attack to pick up the slave. Might allow you to land some shots if that works all the time.

 

[THECATISDEAD]

Shame that the whole Thargoid gameplay revolves around the dreaded USS (NHSS) "gameplay", which is extremely boring. So there is this dangerous alien race destroying stations in the Pleiades and beyond but you don't actually see them do it. You can also totally avoid any and all conflict if you don't drop into a NHSS. How boring indeed.

Yet again, love ED but this is basic game play we are talking about; something the devs have continually failed to expand upon and seem incapable to do so. I believe the devs are better suited at making some sort of casino game, given the massive hard on they have for random number generators...

 

[Oss133]

The whole thing was just for Commander Thrust from Bradford, but he finished it months ago.

 

[Red Anders]

One thing that might work is taking along some Imperial slaves. I saw a video where a guy rolled up to an agroed flower ship and jettisoned an imperial slave, the ship stopped its attack to pick up the slave. Might allow you to land some shots if that works all the time.

Christ that's brutal.

 

[GG7]

Shame that the whole Thargoid gameplay revolves around the dreaded USS (NHSS) "gameplay", which is extremely boring. So there is this dangerous alien race destroying stations in the Pleiades and beyond but you don't actually see them do it. You can also totally avoid any and all conflict if you don't drop into a NHSS. How boring indeed.

Yet again, love ED but this is basic game play we are talking about; something the devs have continually failed to expand upon and seem incapable to do so. I believe the devs are better suited at making some sort of casino game, given the massive hard on they have for random number generators...

Can't argue with any of your very valid points. I have yet to do anything with the Thargoids because I am one of those persnickety players who wants more clarification as to what these rumored "Thargoid Tribes/Factions" are all about. And if there are "Good Thargoids" and "Bad Thargoids" involved in the bigger picture.

But back to your valid bones of contention... The lack of spontaneous encounters free of the "Staged" feeling that comes along with the USS requirement has proven the biggest turnoff for me.

I would lump the "Thargoid Thursdays" into that same bucket.

For without the direct, spontaneous encounters, like witnessing a massive surprise Thargoid attack on a StarPort with your own eyes in real time, none of this has any true sense of urgency or threat. It all feels remote and disconnected to me.

The same level of impact as reading about the effects of a Hurricane on the other side of the planet. In a magazine. 6 months after the event took place.

 

[Hossi]

Especialy gifted? Certainly not. You need bit of experience to get it right. The right tactic for sure. And proper equipment.
I'm defefinitly not some kind of uber-pilot, but even before I got guardian weapons I could take a cyclops out in 5 to 10 minutes, with 80% hull and shield up.
Nowadays with guardian weapons? I stumbled upon a threat 5 when returning from a engineer last week. It was late, I was tired and pretty drunk, perfect boundary condition to pick a fight with a xeno. After poking it I realized that the weapon groups were totaly wrong, there was (of course) a fuel scoop were the SCB should be, and I had no fighter pilot on board. I drunkenly slamed in the xeno (making him hostile) before I could get the scan done , thats optional anyways if you know what you are doing. And I still came out with 60% hull. Fun was had.


If you need help, just come around https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/390599-Anti-Xeno-Combat-Initiative-and-Ship-Outfit-Suggestions-for-All

 

[Hexcaliber]

Shame that the whole Thargoid gameplay revolves around the dreaded USS (NHSS) "gameplay", which is extremely boring. So there is this dangerous alien race destroying stations in the Pleiades and beyond but you don't actually see them do it. You can also totally avoid any and all conflict if you don't drop into a NHSS. How boring indeed.

Yet again, love ED but this is basic game play we are talking about; something the devs have continually failed to expand upon and seem incapable to do so. I believe the devs are better suited at making some sort of casino game, given the massive hard on they have for random number generators...

Thargoids are now showing up in asteroid rings. The thargoid storyline has been on a slow burn but is picking up pace, as time goes on I would expect to see them expand outwards and appear more frequently. With scouts now making an appearance and kill-able solo without ax weapons, I would expect to start seeing them make an appearance on the edges of the bubble, and even start interdicting unsuspecting players going about their business as happened in the original Elite. And frankly not before time, I have not died to an npc since Jan 2015 killing NPC conda in a viper.

 

[William J Smith]

I had my corvette out in the Pleiades especially equipped for thargoid hunting (and this is before guardian weapons came out)
And the best I could do solo was blasting out 1 heart and maybe doign a bit of damage to another before a combination of the swarm and fire from a very angry thargoid forced me into a retreat (the bugs targetted my FSD I think)

Then I winged up , got the remote flak cannons and multi-cannons and kept the swarm under control while having the odd pot shot with the AX multi-cannons, and managed to knock out a few thargoids.
Then some bright spark said "Lets goto a level 6 site and take on the basilik" 5 mins later as we were respawning in maia, we said as one "That was a somewhat stupid idea...."
However scout ships are fun to take out ,4 A multi-cannons and 3 AX multis do them in a treat , then scoop the bits (I've spent the past few days near the bubble doing just that... with the result no more scout appearing)

The actual storyline is more about research and finding some stuff and adding it to knowledge we already have.
OK theres an alien base in the Oracle system and you can follow the trail to the 3 bases it gives directions to, but unless you're feeling very grindy , you are not going to go to them and then follow more directions in order to visit every single thargoid mothership wreck site (206 I believe).
This is my biggest letdown... in that even if you find some crumbs, or directions from an unlisted beacon, you cant make much use of them besides following them to the target IF you know howto decode them

My advice would be .. go have fun trying out things such as weapon combinations (I found out by accident that module reinforcements are worth just as much when fighting thargoids as hull reinforcements) rather than worrying about things that are out of our control

Bill

<<currently back doing barely legal trading

 

[GunnerBill]

I really wanted to get into the whole Thargoid hunting thing but the whole repetitive expose heart, yellow lighting, expose heart thing just reminded me of R-Type or some such game from the 80's & 90's.

So I went back to bounty hunting.

 

[Muetdhiver]

Like you I started with turrets, and failed. Turns out the fixed version reload is twice as fast and does more damage.

Also SCBs and avoiding the pulse are very important in solo. Same goes with the swarm : take it down, these bugs will tear you apart. Use the fighter to keep the big guy distracted while you flak the pest.

Tried 7 times before managing one in solo.

 

[DoodlyStudmuffin]

Scouts are quite easy to solo.

 

[whostolemyname]

Thanks guys for all the inspiration.
I'll give it another shot . Still wish they would have gimballed AX weapons though.

 

[whostolemyname]

I'm sorry to be that guy but I have to point this out. Please don't interpret it as some sort of judgement because it isn't, it's just a factual statement.

You did take part in it. You just didn't kill one of them. I happen to think it's great that the game has content which is just too difficult for some players and extremely challenging for others.

Did you have fun during your 15-20 tries at killing one? Surely that's the important thing.

No offence taken, but that's what basilisk and medusa are for imho.

Altogether, I must admit it was a rather frustrating experience, since in the time when i did my tries, whenever i came around trying out some new build or weapon the thargoids did not at all behave anymore like they did in the videos other people posted. There behavior got more erratic, they stayed out of range of my turrets etc. So let's say, I had more fun with other aspects of the game.