Just saw the new trailer. WOW!

[Spacecat]

That sound though...gave me chills. Sound department is doing splendid job. As usual.

Sounded a lot like a discovery scanner to me...

 

[Zhark]

I actually get the feeling that the build up of aliens is going to be more enjoyable than the actual inclusion of them. I'm enjoying the slow release tension behind it

Agreed. My speculation on how they will be included (born out of playing since beta):

Thargoids (or whatever they are) will be pretty much like every other PowerPlay faction. Players will be able to get spikes on their ships as a reward for commitment to the faction though just like all other hull add-ons it won't show in the HUD display (just the typical faction/Combat rank). There will be the same missions just like every other faction though perhaps with a modicum of an "alien" twist. In high intensity combat zones the alien ships will take the place of the Imperial/Federal large sized capital ships but otherwise you will only see AI flying normal Cobras etc with spikes (or perhaps nothing different at all except faction titles as it is now). The "home system" planets will have caves + spikes and there may be a few simplistic, repetitive and unrewarding missions (i.e. standard mission board fare) to go to those moons/planets to gather "scans" or "artifacts" which won't drastically alter meta game or be anything like a story experience (nor help you advance financially without resorting to "board swapping" for hours on end).

Occasionally there may be a Community Goal related to them but for the most part there will be little in the way of developing a story or plot of any sort and there will be little further interaction beyond maybe a livestream or a few headlines in Galnet.

Ultimately they will play out as just another "feature" (i.e. E now with ALIENS!) rather than actual "content".

/sigh

But if I ignore all my previous experience with Elite, that trailer does look promising!

 

[cmdr underhill]

Let's hope the "spiky" planet isn't just the art department's promotional teaser and eventually shows up in the game. As the live streams have never revealed anything like it we'll wait and see. Definitely not in 2.3 Beta.

Meanwhile with the Thargoids showing up it looks like surface prospecting just got a whole lot more dangerous! Hmmm...Maybe the mothership protecting Tharglets on the surface...

Hoping 2.4 is about caves and better terrain. I mean that seems like the right amount of tease to apply to a feature that is a whole release + beta away. Could be just something thargoid tho.

 

[andrak]

I actually get the feeling that the build up of aliens is going to be more enjoyable than the actual inclusion of them. I'm enjoying the slow release tension behind it

That says more about Frontier not managing expectations and allowing hype to build to far greater levels than they can deliver, than the delay in including aliens being acceptable.