I've come up with some ideas for missions which would allow the less combative commanders to contribute to kicking the Thargoids out of a system suffering from incursion. I originally posted a version of this in the Thargoid incursion zone announcement thread, but decided since these were principally game suggestions for Frontier, it wouldn't hurt to pop an edited version of them on this section of the forum.
So without more ado, here are some ideas for missions given within a system in a war state, that could plausibly help in the war effort:
Cyclinguy
EDIT: where marked, and for typos and formatting
So without more ado, here are some ideas for missions given within a system in a war state, that could plausibly help in the war effort:
How about stealth recon missions? Players are tasked to sneak into Thargoid occupied space and scan Thargoid 'command ships' returning with precious intel for the war effort? Extra credits if the mission is completed undetected (EDIT: Silent running maybe?).
We already have source and return missions, but an interesting variant would be to task a player with visiting a loosely specified location to obtain an exotic material from a hotspot found in a ring around a planet in a nearby system, and which is not found anywhere else. The mission wouldn't even necessarily specify the required system, just give a maximum distance from the mission giving system, so that maybe a handful of systems have to be searched. The player would then need to use the new exploration and mining tools to find and retrieve it.
Similarly, special items useful for the war effort (black boxes, special tech items, recent Thargoid crash sites with related bug tissue samples etc) could be made available for recovery on planet surfaces, with a risk of encountering Thargoid scavengers after the same items. Again, these might be specified only in terms of 'a nearby system thought to be within x ly', and the new scanners used to find the correct system, planet and coords of the required items.
And finally, a mission where a commander would obtain information about a Thargoid spy device hidden inside an asteroid hidden in a ring around a planet in the incursion system itself or in one nearby. The exploration tools would pick up a special Thargoid signature within an otherwise barren section of a planetary ring so that the mining pulse wave scanner was able to pin down the specific asteroid required fairly easily. Said asteroid would have to be split open and the concealed Thargoid device brought back to the mission giver. To add spice, the device might have corrosive effects like Thargoid probes etc. Credits would be deducted if the device were damaged by an overzealous explosion!
We already have source and return missions, but an interesting variant would be to task a player with visiting a loosely specified location to obtain an exotic material from a hotspot found in a ring around a planet in a nearby system, and which is not found anywhere else. The mission wouldn't even necessarily specify the required system, just give a maximum distance from the mission giving system, so that maybe a handful of systems have to be searched. The player would then need to use the new exploration and mining tools to find and retrieve it.
Similarly, special items useful for the war effort (black boxes, special tech items, recent Thargoid crash sites with related bug tissue samples etc) could be made available for recovery on planet surfaces, with a risk of encountering Thargoid scavengers after the same items. Again, these might be specified only in terms of 'a nearby system thought to be within x ly', and the new scanners used to find the correct system, planet and coords of the required items.
And finally, a mission where a commander would obtain information about a Thargoid spy device hidden inside an asteroid hidden in a ring around a planet in the incursion system itself or in one nearby. The exploration tools would pick up a special Thargoid signature within an otherwise barren section of a planetary ring so that the mining pulse wave scanner was able to pin down the specific asteroid required fairly easily. Said asteroid would have to be split open and the concealed Thargoid device brought back to the mission giver. To add spice, the device might have corrosive effects like Thargoid probes etc. Credits would be deducted if the device were damaged by an overzealous explosion!
Cyclinguy
EDIT: where marked, and for typos and formatting
Last edited: