Thargoid Corrosiveness - IMPORTANT Safety Tip

Daniel Cloudsifter

Daniel Cloudsifter
So after having played this game for years and only rarely dealing with corrosive materials in that time, I was NOT aware (though it does make sense) that every time the corrosive items (Thargoid Sensors, Probes, etc.) do their damage tick, the amount of damage is applied for all the items during that one tick, and the amount increases the damage.

Again, when you think about it, that makes sense... but I've never seen anyone post about this or any information on the wiki about this.

I'd been stockpiling Thargoid sensors on my carrier using my Cobra Mk IV, which can safely hold 66 tons of corrosive cargo (3 size 4 racks and one size 1). Originally, I'd been making runs from the CG spot all the way out to the Pleiades and back in the Cobra, one load at a time. Yesterday, I decided I would jump my carrier, stock up about six runs of items, and then jump the carrier back and unload them. I did the first unload in the Cobra Mk IV. Then I decided... based on the small amount of damage I had seen 3 sensors (didn't realize it was scaling for 3 vs 1) to my SRVs during all those loads - that I should go ahead and use my Cutter to take the remaining five load - 330 tons - all at once to the station one jump away.

As soon as I launched, one of my pulse lasers was immediately disabled. I thought that was odd... guess the damage scaled up, but one of those wasn't really enough for me to gauge the effect.

Then, as I'm jumping the cargo hatch goes straight to inoperative (0%). Hmm, this is worrying, better get there quick.

As I'm swinging around the star to get to the station, I get a canopy warning. Canopy goes from 100% to 0% and blows. Greaat. Now I have no HoloDisplay for approaching the station... or dodging the interdiction I suffered and failed.

Managed to get away from that guy, get back into supercruise, and... by some miracle arrive at the station. At least two more systems went offline in the period... one was the fuel scoop. I lined the ship up for approach and then let autodocking take over while I refilled my lifesupport.

Just as we're about to touch down I hear something about the power plant. That's immediately followed by everything going dark and my hearing the "Eject! Eject! Eject!" and kaboom.

First time I've ever lost that cutter. I also lost 330 tons of Sensor Probes (worth approximately 495 million). Fantastic. Just fantastic. I was trying to earn all this money so I could have a nice fat sum to keep the carrier paid for and allow me to play other games in the meantime. grumble

Yeah, I'm really irritated about this. Kind of amused too. I just wish there was information somewhere that would've highlighted the corrosive damage increased with the amount and they applied ALL that damage to the same system at the same time. If I had instead see all my systems degrading rapidly through multiple ticks, or the damage spread out through each tick, I would've aborted right away and returned to the carrier, transferred the cargo back, and gone back to safe transport.

So warning to everyone else: Corrosive damage increases with every single item and that damage is applied to ONE system every tick. If you have 330 tons onboard, it will destroy any system you have onboard with every tick. Nothing on my cutter survived a tick, including the 8A fully armored powerplant.

I really am surprised. How in the heck did anyone do UA bombing back in the day? Wow.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
BlondWeirdAndeancat.webp
 

Daniel Cloudsifter

Daniel Cloudsifter
myothershipisacobraiv said:

Guide to storing and transporting Corrosive Materials

Shipping corrosive cargo can be difficult, and there's a lot of people who aren't sure what they're doing with these things and think CRCRs are needed to ship even one tonne of this stuff. I can assure you, while it's not something you go into without thinking, it's not that hard in reality. I...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk
Click to expand...
Good to know... now. I didn't think to search the forums for a five year old guide. It's a real shame there isn't one bit of this information in the Wiki... I know because I was reading up on Probes and Sensors before I started this CG. I think that is what irritates me the most... well, that and the ship only blowing up right as I was about to touch down; suppose it could've been worse, and waited to blow after I was docked and while I was going through the menus to sell the items... that would be maximum annoyance.

The lost money is painful (only because of carrier upkeep), but the real loss is the time spent. The 5-6 hours (not all in one sitting) spent gathering this stuff up. Time I really wanted to be playing something else but the limited time/high credits were too much to resist.

Anyway, my OP at the top is just a warning to everyone else. Don't get in a rush. If I do any more runs, it will just be in my Cobra MK IV with 66 tons of corrosive protection; I've had that ship ready to use for two years now and now it finally got to shine. That ship is aptly named "Hazmat."
 

Daniel Cloudsifter

Daniel Cloudsifter
Btw, anyone know what log file I would need to look at (and where I can find it) to see the record of the damage being applied? I thought it would be fun to link here. As Kevin Hart would say "Laugh at my pain." :ROFLMAO:
 

Neilski

Neilski
Daniel Cloudsifter said:
Btw, anyone know what log file I would need to look at (and where I can find it) to see the record of the damage being applied? I thought it would be fun to link here. As Kevin Hart would say "Laugh at my pain." :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
First of all, ouch. I feel your pain.
Secondly, I reckon the only place the damage record is gonna be (if anywhere) is in your journal files. If you aren't familiar with where to find them, then you could try %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous (may not be in same place on every PC platform though).
 

HRDiagram

HRDiagram
Most of us do something silly out of ignorance, at some point, that leads to the loss of many credits and, more importantly, the loss of the time it took to gather the data or goods associated with those credits.
It's frustrating at the beginning, but once you elaborate the disappointment, you can wear it as a badge of honour!

This is going to be your facepalm moment: be proud of it!

(But don't repeat it!)
 

Daniel Cloudsifter

Daniel Cloudsifter
Neilski said:
First of all, ouch. I feel your pain.
Secondly, I reckon the only place the damage record is gonna be (if anywhere) is in your journal files. If you aren't familiar with where to find them, then you could try %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous (may not be in same place on every PC platform though).
Click to expand...

Thanks! That's where it was. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to log the damage as it happened. I just saw a rebuy entry and that was about it.

HRDiagram said:
Most of us do something silly out of ignorance, at some point, that leads to the loss of many credits and, more importantly, the loss of the time it took to gather the data or goods associated with those credits.
It's frustrating at the beginning, but once you elaborate the disappointment, you can wear it as a badge of honour!

This is going to be your facepalm moment: be proud of it!

(But don't repeat it!)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm really regretting that I didn't start an Nvidia recording the minute things started to go wrong (before the canopy even blew) or do a dump of the last five minutes after the ship blew. I was just too stunned that the ship blew up just as it was about to touch down... I thought I was finally safe and surprised the blown canopy didn't cost me more time/didn't blow up earlier.

I've parked my Cobra MK IV at the Thargoid crash site and did an initial scoop of 3 sensors. I'll do the rest later. Even with this loss, I had already turned in around 300+ tons already, so...
 

Florenus

Florenus
I'm sorry (I really am, because I appreciate the spirit in which OP shared this info), but all I managed to take from that story is the amount of relogging required to gather all this stuff.
What kind of game is that?
I consider this kind of CG design appalling and simply can't understand why people fall for that crap. We should all rather boycott it, not break records in relogging.
 

Daniel Cloudsifter

Daniel Cloudsifter
Florenus said:
I'm sorry (I really am, because I appreciate the spirit in which OP shared this info), but all I managed to take from that story is the amount of relogging required to gather all this stuff.
What kind of game is that?
I consider this kind of CG design appalling and simply can't understand why people fall for that crap. We should all rather boycott it, not break records in relogging.
Click to expand...
No, I get where you're coming from. There is a lot of grind in this game period, so for me all the relogging for the huge payout was worth it.

I would much rather there be POI's I could find and scan and harvest say 6-8 of the items at a time, and then be able to quickly move on and find another one.

Further, if relogging didn't work and I could've only harvested 3 and that was it, I still would have done that. Why? I've never bothered to take an intact Thargoid Sensor onboard my ship (only blown them up for fragments) and then sold it. You have to do that at least once in order to set the hidden flag for being able to be hyperdicted by the Thargoids. So finally, after about 5 years, I'm getting hyperdicted now. So that's a bonus...
 

Florenus

Florenus
Daniel Cloudsifter said:
No, I get where you're coming from. There is a lot of grind in this game period, so for me all the relogging for the huge payout was worth it.

I would much rather there be POI's I could find and scan and harvest say 6-8 of the items at a time, and then be able to quickly move on and find another one.

Further, if relogging didn't work and I could've only harvested 3 and that was it, I still would have done that. Why? I've never bothered to take an intact Thargoid Sensor onboard my ship (only blown them up for fragments) and then sold it. You have to do that at least once in order to set the hidden flag for being able to be hyperdicted by the Thargoids. So finally, after about 5 years, I'm getting hyperdicted now. So that's a bonus...
Click to expand...
I just wish they would design those CGs in not so damn lazy way. Sure it makes some sense story wise to choose those commodities, but they should realize that it actually forces players to relog if they want to get prizes. People who designed this CG either don't realize that, don't care, or maybe even consider it acceptable gameplay.
There was Bridging the Gap Initiative few years back, with CG that called for Guardian artifacts. It could've been similar logfest, but they've added megaships full of those artifacts that you could raid with hatch breakers and space signals full of lost guardian cargo, making it one of the most memorable CGs for me, because of the various ways you could get what was needed.

Now I got 1 sensor from a crash site in the Bubble for current CG and that will be end of my contribution most likely.

Btw, are you sure about that hidden flag? I could've sworn I've been hyperdicted by Thargoids way before I touched my first sensor or anything of theirs.
 

Jmanis

Jmanis
Daniel Cloudsifter said:
So after having played this game for years and only rarely dealing with corrosive materials in that time, I was NOT aware (though it does make sense) that every time the corrosive items (Thargoid Sensors, Probes, etc.) do their damage tick, the amount of damage is applied for all the items during that one tick, and the amount increases the damage.

Again, when you think about it, that makes sense... but I've never seen anyone post about this or any information on the wiki about this.

I'd been stockpiling Thargoid sensors on my carrier using my Cobra Mk IV, which can safely hold 66 tons of corrosive cargo (3 size 4 racks and one size 1). Originally, I'd been making runs from the CG spot all the way out to the Pleiades and back in the Cobra, one load at a time. Yesterday, I decided I would jump my carrier, stock up about six runs of items, and then jump the carrier back and unload them. I did the first unload in the Cobra Mk IV. Then I decided... based on the small amount of damage I had seen 3 sensors (didn't realize it was scaling for 3 vs 1) to my SRVs during all those loads - that I should go ahead and use my Cutter to take the remaining five load - 330 tons - all at once to the station one jump away.

As soon as I launched, one of my pulse lasers was immediately disabled. I thought that was odd... guess the damage scaled up, but one of those wasn't really enough for me to gauge the effect.

Then, as I'm jumping the cargo hatch goes straight to inoperative (0%). Hmm, this is worrying, better get there quick.

As I'm swinging around the star to get to the station, I get a canopy warning. Canopy goes from 100% to 0% and blows. Greaat. Now I have no HoloDisplay for approaching the station... or dodging the interdiction I suffered and failed.

Managed to get away from that guy, get back into supercruise, and... by some miracle arrive at the station. At least two more systems went offline in the period... one was the fuel scoop. I lined the ship up for approach and then let autodocking take over while I refilled my lifesupport.

Just as we're about to touch down I hear something about the power plant. That's immediately followed by everything going dark and my hearing the "Eject! Eject! Eject!" and kaboom.

First time I've ever lost that cutter. I also lost 330 tons of Sensor Probes (worth approximately 495 million). Fantastic. Just fantastic. I was trying to earn all this money so I could have a nice fat sum to keep the carrier paid for and allow me to play other games in the meantime. grumble

Yeah, I'm really irritated about this. Kind of amused too. I just wish there was information somewhere that would've highlighted the corrosive damage increased with the amount and they applied ALL that damage to the same system at the same time. If I had instead see all my systems degrading rapidly through multiple ticks, or the damage spread out through each tick, I would've aborted right away and returned to the carrier, transferred the cargo back, and gone back to safe transport.

So warning to everyone else: Corrosive damage increases with every single item and that damage is applied to ONE system every tick. If you have 330 tons onboard, it will destroy any system you have onboard with every tick. Nothing on my cutter survived a tick, including the 8A fully armored powerplant.

I really am surprised. How in the heck did anyone do UA bombing back in the day? Wow.
Click to expand...

Oof, sorry for your loss mate. Though 330 would've been some sort of record if you'd made it.

My guide from way-back-when got linked here, but you're right, information about the mechanics is very limited to non-existent, save for people who deal with this sorta thing regularly. Of note, the damage done by a single Thargoid item is substantially more than Toxic Waste/Chemical Waste, the only toxic human materials. Would be awesome if there were missions transporting this kind of material as a lead-in to the dangers it poses, but when some accidentally got put in the game they were removed.

IIRC more than 20 will one-shot your canopy, more than 24 will one-shot your cargo hatch. They're the two that will ruin you in most circumstances... but suffice to say yours is not what I'd call "most circumstances" 😅 Jumping system to system is actually pretty safe, provided you time it right, aren't doing huge jumps and plan your fuel situation well, you can avoid all damage, but it's the journey in supercruise that will get you. My own "unprotected" record was shipping 53t of the stuff a couple jumps, and while I got there, it wasn't pretty

UfX4Fc6.png

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Meanwhile, my record distance without CRCRs was all the way to Colonia, but that was with just 10t, so all systems could survive a single hit.

On UA bombing... most I shipped in one load then (because you had to collect the Thargoid Sensors from the Pleiades UA "shell" from random USS) was around 27t... that was hair-raising enough. For the way most people talked about UA bombing you'd be excused for thinking it was just "grab hundreds and away you go totally risk free to troll the community writ-large" and not the high-stakes activity it actually was.... unlike the counter of meta-alloys which was completely risk-free by comparison... just people didn't have it in them to collect MAs to counter any UA bombing. But... here we are. With 16t CRCRs (and higher, from the other CG) it's much easier to ship larger volumes these days, but you'd still be limited to 150-odd... 330 would definitely still be pretty out of reach to all but the most insane and prepared pilots :D
 
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Northpin

Northpin
Daniel Cloudsifter said:
So after having played this game for years and only rarely dealing with corrosive materials in that time, I was NOT aware (though it does make sense) that every time the corrosive items (Thargoid Sensors, Probes, etc.) do their damage tick, the amount of damage is applied for all the items during that one tick, and the amount increases the damage.

Again, when you think about it, that makes sense... but I've never seen anyone post about this or any information on the wiki about this.

I'd been stockpiling Thargoid sensors on my carrier using my Cobra Mk IV, which can safely hold 66 tons of corrosive cargo (3 size 4 racks and one size 1). Originally, I'd been making runs from the CG spot all the way out to the Pleiades and back in the Cobra, one load at a time. Yesterday, I decided I would jump my carrier, stock up about six runs of items, and then jump the carrier back and unload them. I did the first unload in the Cobra Mk IV. Then I decided... based on the small amount of damage I had seen 3 sensors (didn't realize it was scaling for 3 vs 1) to my SRVs during all those loads - that I should go ahead and use my Cutter to take the remaining five load - 330 tons - all at once to the station one jump away.

As soon as I launched, one of my pulse lasers was immediately disabled. I thought that was odd... guess the damage scaled up, but one of those wasn't really enough for me to gauge the effect.

Then, as I'm jumping the cargo hatch goes straight to inoperative (0%). Hmm, this is worrying, better get there quick.

As I'm swinging around the star to get to the station, I get a canopy warning. Canopy goes from 100% to 0% and blows. Greaat. Now I have no HoloDisplay for approaching the station... or dodging the interdiction I suffered and failed.

Managed to get away from that guy, get back into supercruise, and... by some miracle arrive at the station. At least two more systems went offline in the period... one was the fuel scoop. I lined the ship up for approach and then let autodocking take over while I refilled my lifesupport.

Just as we're about to touch down I hear something about the power plant. That's immediately followed by everything going dark and my hearing the "Eject! Eject! Eject!" and kaboom.

First time I've ever lost that cutter. I also lost 330 tons of Sensor Probes (worth approximately 495 million). Fantastic. Just fantastic. I was trying to earn all this money so I could have a nice fat sum to keep the carrier paid for and allow me to play other games in the meantime. grumble

Yeah, I'm really irritated about this. Kind of amused too. I just wish there was information somewhere that would've highlighted the corrosive damage increased with the amount and they applied ALL that damage to the same system at the same time. If I had instead see all my systems degrading rapidly through multiple ticks, or the damage spread out through each tick, I would've aborted right away and returned to the carrier, transferred the cargo back, and gone back to safe transport.

So warning to everyone else: Corrosive damage increases with every single item and that damage is applied to ONE system every tick. If you have 330 tons onboard, it will destroy any system you have onboard with every tick. Nothing on my cutter survived a tick, including the 8A fully armored powerplant.

I really am surprised. How in the heck did anyone do UA bombing back in the day? Wow.
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking one for the team!
Very informative

I've personally didnt risk it- although at one point during this cg i failed to noticed that my python had 1 normal size 4 cargo rack instead of a crcr one - 144 t crcr and 16t normal racks and i packed 147t of sensors and started to get warning messages.
In my case the module damage was like 5% per tick per module affected, so nothing dramatic - but even then, i just preferred to eject the 3 offending sensors even tho i had a 2 minutes trip to my carrier
 
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