I've never engaged an Interceptor. I had followed the thargoid story thus far with moderate interest - went to the Pleiades to experience a hyperdiction, rescued people from burning starports, even killed quite a few Scouts during a CG.
Challenging an Interceptor was a thing I wouldn't have dared at the beginnig of the Thargoid threat - first victories, even with the emerging AX weapons, were had by commanders in wings (I play mostly as a "solo" player, albeit in all modes), and I wouldn't compare my casual piloting skills with the likes of GluttonyFang who solo'd the thargs early on. The need for a specialised ship that wouldn't be useful for much else further discouraged me from a task that, it seemed, could easily be replaced by watching someone else do it on Youtube.
Fast forward to yesterday: having seen the advent of guardian weapons, the Thargoids' advance into the heart of the bubble, and people doing solo kills in small ships, I'm actally sitting in the most recent addition to my ever growing fleet, the engineered Federal Dropship "A Can Of Raid", loaded to the brim with heavy duty hull reinforcements and sporting some guardian gauss cannons and remote relase flak launchers; a ship that doesn't hurt too badly to replace and that I hadn't found a use for until now (thus striking a chord in the completionist that I am).
"The one advantage of the Thargoids' presence in the bubble is the short travel time to find one to test my skills (and ship) against", I think and, after a quick look into the forums, travel to Deneb Algedi, 19 lightyears at a time, to meet my first Interceptor in battle. Since I'm a noob at this and I know it, I decide to start easy. "Smallest one is a Cyclops, NHSS Threat 5", I remember from my travels through the Pleiades, "let's go find one."
This is where reality starts to deviate from the script I had in my head. Every NHSS I encounter has scouts. Threat 3 and 4, granted, scouts only. Threat 7? 8? Nah, not dropping into those yet! But every Threat 5 (and 6) I enter is populated by scouts, and very seldomly an Interceptor soon follows. But over the course of over an hour I don't encounter a single one with only a Cyclops (or Basilisk for that matter). I give up for the day and go to bed.
tl;dr:
In the systems with the most recent Thargoid sightings, before the Thursday attack, are there actually "classic" NHSSs Threat 5 with only a Cyclops present, and I have only been very unlucky so far? Or do I actually need to travel elsewhere to spawn one? I don't want to have to bother with the extra scouts on my first tries. Thank you for your answers.
Challenging an Interceptor was a thing I wouldn't have dared at the beginnig of the Thargoid threat - first victories, even with the emerging AX weapons, were had by commanders in wings (I play mostly as a "solo" player, albeit in all modes), and I wouldn't compare my casual piloting skills with the likes of GluttonyFang who solo'd the thargs early on. The need for a specialised ship that wouldn't be useful for much else further discouraged me from a task that, it seemed, could easily be replaced by watching someone else do it on Youtube.
Fast forward to yesterday: having seen the advent of guardian weapons, the Thargoids' advance into the heart of the bubble, and people doing solo kills in small ships, I'm actally sitting in the most recent addition to my ever growing fleet, the engineered Federal Dropship "A Can Of Raid", loaded to the brim with heavy duty hull reinforcements and sporting some guardian gauss cannons and remote relase flak launchers; a ship that doesn't hurt too badly to replace and that I hadn't found a use for until now (thus striking a chord in the completionist that I am).
"The one advantage of the Thargoids' presence in the bubble is the short travel time to find one to test my skills (and ship) against", I think and, after a quick look into the forums, travel to Deneb Algedi, 19 lightyears at a time, to meet my first Interceptor in battle. Since I'm a noob at this and I know it, I decide to start easy. "Smallest one is a Cyclops, NHSS Threat 5", I remember from my travels through the Pleiades, "let's go find one."
This is where reality starts to deviate from the script I had in my head. Every NHSS I encounter has scouts. Threat 3 and 4, granted, scouts only. Threat 7? 8? Nah, not dropping into those yet! But every Threat 5 (and 6) I enter is populated by scouts, and very seldomly an Interceptor soon follows. But over the course of over an hour I don't encounter a single one with only a Cyclops (or Basilisk for that matter). I give up for the day and go to bed.
tl;dr:
In the systems with the most recent Thargoid sightings, before the Thursday attack, are there actually "classic" NHSSs Threat 5 with only a Cyclops present, and I have only been very unlucky so far? Or do I actually need to travel elsewhere to spawn one? I don't want to have to bother with the extra scouts on my first tries. Thank you for your answers.
