New Thargoid Activity

[William J Smith]

We don't need to learn the thargoid language any more,

They learned our language pretty quick.... care of 6 engineered plasma chargers (in my case) and puntuated by an untold number of guass cannons and shard launchers

Bill

<<still wondering where the guardian AI went

 

[Oh Seven Commander]

More cheap cannon fodder that is slower than an engineered T9? Meh. Never saw much appeal in the Orthrus massacre farms that were spires, messing around with the Revenants and Banshees on the ground was more fun. Especially if you suddenly ended up chased by three of the Banshees at the same time (and they will not stop until actually losing track of you, unlike the Revenants which remain close to the barnacles).

... and I looked at what they were doing in Sol during the alert state, didn't seem to be much more than the usual placing of probes and/or sensors. (Has it really been 5 months already?)


Once again, I find myself in the position to repeat that the Guardian logs are NOT a conclusive source of information due to the complete lack of details of what actually happened when they made contact with the Thargoids. Did they refuse to move even temporarily off the barnacles which they'd occupied and likely caused the aggression with when the Thargoids asked so? Did the Guardians immediately take up an aggressive tone telling the Thargoids to buzz off because "They were there first and nobody was looking after those weird looking things on planet surfaces" (would sound very familiar)?

I could go on.


It is almost certain we're just a small and relatively unimportant piece in whatever it is the Thargoids are after or doing, even if humanity loves to overinflate its own importance in the grand scheme of things. Or panic and scream about being attacked as there are clear signs whatever is happening is not a purely destructive assault. If that was the intent behind targeting Sol, they A, needn't have bothered scouting it (which they didn't with Shinrarta but why they went after it is an even bigger mystery), nor B, needed to send a Titan straight into humanity's home/origin system.

Arf even strongly hinted at that we were looking at it with too much of a 'human perspective', which can't be much more direct of a hint that there was another purpose at play than just causing pure devastation. If giving humans a scare and a beating on the head was even ever part of it at all, but the fact Cocijo went right into Earth orbit does suggest some symbolic meaning to the action as well. (But it's easier for people to keep pretending the Thargoids are 'mindless bugs' and 'They made their biggest mistake sending a Titan to Sol', not realizing that it keeps blinding them to the fact that there is more going on and the Thargoids are just as if not more intelligent, but in a different way, than/to humans)


I'd rather take the Thargoids or Nemesis not at all a Salvation hint.

If we were supposed to do something else with the Thargoids - frontier should have showered us with more than just guns, and probably not made massive in game events about the titans going kaboom.

Arf can say whatever he wants, but unless there are mechanics in game, it doesn’t exist in universe.

The mechanics for another option don’t exist, so there’s no point in deeply considering it. Once frontier goes on livestream and drops a trailer (like they do for nearly everything) telling us we can now explore the stars hand in hand with our ammonia based buddies, sign me up. But until then, their own lore and mechanics have made the situation pretty clear.

This is their story and they’ve told it this way. It’s not our fault for playing our part when we have 0 agency.

 

[Kira Goto]

Arf can say whatever he wants, but unless there are mechanics in game, it doesn’t exist in universe.

Where did I say that was about peace? It was more of a hint to the idea that the Thargoids are doing things for other reasons than "Let's go shoot some humans", more so than we should attempt to interact with them differently (which does not exist in the game, as you say, other than some very primitive commodity 'donations' to interceptors that will pick them up).

It's still very possible to have that and give players their experience of shooting them. Which is one of the things Frontier have done well (and it is significantly more engaging than the dull "Joust and repeat" human NPCs). And even as a person who would much rather interact properly than through guns, I'm freely going to admit things are well past the point of talking at least right now. If there was ever any point where it could have been done but obviously it was not the path players chose. Nevermind the story direction behind that which it worked into.

You do seem oddly defensive about it. But objectively the Guardian logs are not a reliable source to claim "Thargoids are impossible to talk to and the best thing you can do if they get angry is defend yourself". That was my entire point, not that a peace path existed in game. If one does it's obtuse to the point that it's effectively impossible to reach (but I doubt there currently is, whether we'll see one developed as an alternative to AX while it also continues to exist in some form, is debatable... very debatable).

 

[Oh Seven Commander]

Where did I say that was about peace? It was more of a hint to the idea that the Thargoids are doing things for other reasons than "Let's go shoot some humans", more so than we should attempt to interact with them differently (which does not exist in the game, as you say, other than some very primitive commodity 'donations' to interceptors that will pick them up).

It's still very possible to have that and give players their experience of shooting them. Which is one of the things Frontier have done well (and it is significantly more engaging than the dull "Joust and repeat" human NPCs). And even as a person who would much rather interact properly than through guns, I'm freely going to admit things are well past the point of talking at least right now. If there was ever any point where it could have been done but obviously it was not the path players chose. Nevermind the story direction behind that which it worked into.

You do seem oddly defensive about it. But objectively the Guardian logs are not a reliable source to claim "Thargoids are impossible to talk to and the best thing you can do if they get angry is defend yourself". That was my entire point, not that a peace path existed in game. If one does it's obtuse to the point that it's effectively impossible to reach (but I doubt there currently is, whether we'll see one developed as an alternative to AX while it also continues to exist in some form, is debatable... very debatable).

Not defensive, I’ve just been here for the whole thing since the first Cyclops. M

We’ve never been given a serious chance, in the spaceship combat game, to peacefully grow an alliance or something with the Thargoids.

If the story can go that way, the authors need to allow it. Aragorn didn’t get to tell Tolkien who took the Ring to Mordor, after all.

 

[Kira Goto]

We’ve never been given a serious chance, in the spaceship combat game, to peacefully grow an alliance or something with the Thargoids.

And I know that. Just as much as that the story has to give an option for that alternative/non-violent interaction path with the Thargoids. I can tell you for a fact the lack thereof has been a recurring point of frustration amidst less AX/more peace-oriented players I’ve been in the community of for about two years (give or take two months). [The Kingfisher also kind of felt more like an insult than what Frontier seemed to have intended with it. Plus they dropped those hints of sabotage, as though it wasn’t obvious enough the Thargoids were coming on a war path and would not talk at that point.]

But we understand Frontier already has/had a story to tell with the Titan incursion, too, and was certainly not going to throw that in the dumpster for a probably smaller side of the playerbase. The only small hint we’ve had at non-angry Thargoids that could possibly be reasoned with was a lot at some distant Guardian-Thargoid battleground that when they were discovered by humans, just… withdrew, without particular violent exchanges, and GalNet made it a point to mention that possible peace thing again, alongside other theories, which I figure would not be without purpose (though I currently favor the “Their purpose was to study, not engage with humans, so they went somewhere else” idea, because that seems most logical to me). Of course, it has also not seen any development since then.