Stop hiding Thargoids behind USS - add Thargoid NPC's like "pirates"

[CMDR_Raikkonen]

With the introduction of some "Thargoid states" in systems, do you think it would be possible to swap out human pirate NPCs with various Thargoid ships instead?

Just so the game was actually dangerous and threatening? I have largely evaded all of the Thargoid contact because I know they are stuck behind Non-Human USS instances. So I just cruise past them easy as pie.

If it is possible - they should not send any signal or transmissions like NPC human pirates do before attacking. That crap gets old - and I'd hate for FDev to have a go at developing Thargoid languages -_-

 

[Factabulous]

"That's some tasty looking bags of meat you have driving that ship - eject yourself in an escape pod in 10 seconds or I start firing"

 

[Speedcuffs]

"That's some tasty looking bags of meat you have driving that ship - eject yourself in an escape pod in 10 seconds or I start firing"

Thanks for the translation[up]

 

[Riverside]

Do they not still do hyperdictions from witchspace?

I'm not 100% on the lore but my understanding is that they don't use supercruise to get around, hence we don't see them in supercruise.

 

[777Driver]

Do they not still do hyperdictions from witchspace?

.

Yeah, only hostile if you are carrying alien tech.

I guess the devs wan't the hardcore battles to be opt in. It is a difficult thing to balance, many want nothing to do with the Thargoid content. As it stands even those that don't want conflict will be affected by Thargoid presence in a system (effect on BGS/Starport closures) Seems like a good balance to me.

 

[SushiCW]

If you don't want them in supercruise for lore reasons, you can also just give them a chance to randomly appear when you're in normal space no matter what you're doing at the time. Obviously only in systems actively being attacked.

 

[Riverside]

If you don't want them in supercruise for lore reasons, you can also just give them a chance to randomly appear when you're in normal space no matter what you're doing at the time. Obviously only in systems actively being attacked.

I visited a crashed Conda site recently & had one appear while I was in my SRV, it was impressively intimidating & took an interest in my ship that I had left parked nearby. I dismissed the ship & the Thargoid wandered off.

 

[Speedcuffs]

I visited a crashed Conda site recently & had one appear while I was in my SRV, it was impressively intimidating & took an interest in my ship that I had left parked nearby. I dismissed the ship & the Thargoid wandered off.

Shoot the Goid from your SRV.
Run.
See if you can make it to the SRV wreckage.[yesnod]

 

[Factabulous]

They already appear in normal space at settlements, thargoid bases, barnacles, the gnosis ( )

From the patch notes we may see them elsewhere sometime soonish:

[*]Interceptors now launch Thargon kamikaze attacks if they detect a port

Don't expect large changes in how Thargoids work - FDev seem intent on this unrolling over glacial timespaces

 

[CMDR Carbo]

YES!!! And give them an appetite for harmless sidewinders.

 

[amadeus1171]

Have them snatch ships out of supercruise like a spider from it's net.

 

[zeke312]

I would love to see them have a serious effect on the systems where they are active. It would be great if they blockaded stations prior to attacking them, and generally attacked anything they came across in that system. Players who don't want to engage can just stay away from those systems, but their presence should be felt in systems where they operate.

 

[Ian Skippy]

I would love to see them have a serious effect on the systems where they are active. It would be great if they blockaded stations prior to attacking them, and generally attacked anything they came across in that system. Players who don't want to engage can just stay away from those systems, but their presence should be felt in systems where they operate.

That would be me my preference but FD adheres very strongly to a 'never present a challenge until the player actively begs for it'. Not just in ED, it is pretty much how the company works with all their games. I guess the idea is that games sell better the easier they are, and looking at how FD is doing they probably are correct.

 

[Autoculto]

In the original I remember getting pulled into witchspace and attacked regularly. You always made sure you traveled with a galactic hyperspace jump. But then you could also jump to anywhere in the galaxy lol. Those thargons paid well when scooped and you always made sure not to destroy the mother ship until it had released all of them.

But seriously, they are such an integral part of the game lore that they should be more actively offensive. For them to not target surface bases and outposts is ridiculous. Everything everywhere is far to safe at the moment.

Elite Mildly Dangerous

 

[zeke312]

Elite Mildly Dangerous

Unless you own a fully engineered ship... in which case its Elite: Laughably Easy

 

[OnTheMinute]

I’d love to see them yanking us out of supercruise in systems they are present in. They could use RNG that adds a very small chance to get pulled out of supercruise that could be increased based on the number of thargoids you’ve killed since Fdev tracks your thargoid encounters. Or they could even make it so that if you are flying near a non human signal source you have a chance of getting yanked out with increasing odds depending on how many you’ve killed and whatnot. I noticed there’s a ton of signals surrounding stations in systems they’re in so this would actually make trying to dock at a station they are swarmed around a risk that must be weighed.

 

[Leadfoot]

I’d love to see them yanking us out of supercruise in systems they are present in.

Yup, this. AND hyperdictions into or out of systems they are invading.

BUT (there's always one of those, isn't there???) normal weapons should be able to kill them (like in the original wire-frame game, like I heard about over and over and over....).

 

[Kaocraft]

There's no reason we can't have frequent hostile hyperdictions in and out of invaded systems. Most people will run away successfully but the encounter and fear will still be memorable. It's not necessary for every ship to have a fighting chance, only for there to be a chance of escape. And even this can on occasion be set at a high bar. People will lose a ship, or nearly lose a ship, once, and ever after be wary and fearful of Thargoid-invaded areas. People will think twice before passing through such regions and will have a vested interest in seeing them cleared out, even if they themselves do not choose to participate directly. This is how you build interest in the lore of the gameworld and give every player a sense of investment in the outcome of the Thargoid conflicts. You CANNOT accomplish this with every Thargoid encounter being optional and inconsequential, and with every invaded region being business-as-usual but with extra USSs.

 

[Kaocraft]

That would be me my preference but FD adheres very strongly to a 'never present a challenge until the player actively begs for it'. Not just in ED, it is pretty much how the company works with all their games. I guess the idea is that games sell better the easier they are, and looking at how FD is doing they probably are correct.

The original Dark Souls has sold more than twice what Eliteangerous has. Just sayin.

 

[Riverside]

There's no reason we can't have frequent hostile hyperdictions in and out of invaded systems. Most people will run away successfully but the encounter and fear will still be memorable. It's not necessary for every ship to have a fighting chance, only for there to be a chance of escape. And even this can on occasion be set at a high bar. People will lose a ship, or nearly lose a ship, once, and ever after be wary and fearful of Thargoid-invaded areas. People will think twice before passing through such regions and will have a vested interest in seeing them cleared out, even if they themselves do not choose to participate directly. This is how you build interest in the lore of the gameworld and give every player a sense of investment in the outcome of the Thargoid conflicts. You CANNOT accomplish this with every Thargoid encounter being optional and inconsequential, and with every invaded region being business-as-usual but with extra USSs.

If the threat comes to you it needs to be scaled to almost any player likely to encounter it. But if the player travels to it the threat can be scaled up to impossible.

If the player drops into a USS they are opting in. If the player knowingly makes a jump to a known to be dangerous system the whole system can effectively be one big high threat level USS with hyperdictions on the way in & other challenges as some cor alien base is approached.

We have a galaxy filter for choosing civilisation, we have a warning mechanism for jumping into anarchies (where the seriousness of the warning is undermined by every empty system being classed as an anarchy government rather than 'none'). The tools are already in place.