Thargoid invasion - Next target systems?

[Ian Doncaster]

it has been the same pis-easy experience of systems getting floored without much a chance of the Thargoids doing anything

That's only because there's an incredibly large number of players attacking them, though.

There have been ten invasions cleared so far. The last week with a similar volume of clearance (but still recent enough to be after the difficulty curve changes) had about a tenth of the AX activity recorded via third-party tools (and that week could make much better use of spire and pod rescue support). So each individual system cleared is probably about as tough as an entire week's invasions and alerts and controls previously.

Under a more "normal" level of attack, the human side might just about have cleared Procyon, and be looking at the steady destruction of further core systems.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

For what it’s worth, I don’t believe the Thargoids and associated gameplay are gonna go anywhere, I’d just like the Titan event to carry more of a kick. Sure there’s been lots of players getting involved but this doesn’t feel very last-standish and more of just the usual contest of which human can stomp it harder.

Well yes it does feel like we're being probed somewhere sensitive...

 

[Kira Goto]

That's only because there's an incredibly large number of players attacking them, though.

But that is the thing though. The considerations are all relative. Yes, the systems are perhaps stronger but if they weren’t with this player congregation around Sol, they’d have all been completely massacred by now. And given how they are still getting hammered out of existence now I don’t feel the particular urgency which this was probably supposed to invoke.

It does have me wondering if the Thargoids are just not throwing all of their weight behind it because of their alluded mysterious purpose. Which I doubt we would find out much about at this pace if they don’t throw more cannon fodder out to the hordes of humans perfectly happy to assume they’re just here to destroy things.

Well yes it does feel like we're being probed somewhere sensitive...

… I’m not sure what I should comment to this. For the record, I haven’t done it.

 

[Phill P]

The Executioner is a huge improvement over the L6. This is both in terms of magazine size and the L6 explosive ammunition which was most likely to end these missions if tried to snapfire and clipped whatever you were hiding behind.
My own preference was for the layout with the bar.

What mods did you go for? I went for Scope, Faster Handling, Extra Ammo and Stability.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

What mods did you go for? I went for Scope, Faster Handling, Extra Ammo and Stability.

I managed to pick one up with headshot, to make the banshee a bit quicker. Added scope, extra ammo and rapid reload.

 

[Aleks Zuno]

I've quite enjoyed the "event" so far, mostly because I've finally got friends into the AX fight. They were hesitant to get involved previously due to the perceived difficult nature of AX combat, but the "fight for Sol (by clearing nearby systems™)" has tipped them over the edge, and they're loving it.

There are very many similar stories! Many new Commanders—I presume following the Frontier promotion of the Titan event when it was moving—are now asking about Invasions and making starships for defending ports.

On the weekend I met a Commander who had spent everything on a Krait 2 with only the basic AX weapons and utilities, and nothing else due to having only 100000 credits remaining, intending to fly it with no re-buy, no armour and stock modules straight to Sol to see a Thargoid for the first time. I managed to explain the economic misstep and get the Krait traded down for a Vulture with good modules, then took the Commander for a bit of port defence practice in Epsilon Eridani—who then learned to keep Scouts out of the sky, defend against shutdowns and caustic attacks, actually do a bit of petal sub-targeting, and flew away intact with the payouts from a Cyclops and a Baslisk!

NO WAY WOHO
That was siiick
24 mil :3

 

[Factabulous]

going to be close - 'just' need another 3 systems

Ofc if all the completed systems hadn't been overkilled by 66% (together) then the Invasions would be about done by now - and if the Controls had concentrated on even just two of the Controls then they would also be almost complete. Distributed systems are hard

(Wonder if they delayed the CM5 because the downtime would have led to cries of interference with it being so close run )

 

[Phill P]

One thing I am wondering is that when we make Cocijo vulnerable, be that this Thursday or next, and destroy it, will the debris from it remain in Sol, if not forever then for a long time, as a reminder of the war with the Titans? Or might Cocijo take off again and go for another superpower capital or something, or even retreat entirely to avoid the debris in Sol issue?

 

[Sublime]

One thing I am wondering is that when we make Cocijo vulnerable, be that this Thursday or next, and destroy it, will the debris from it remain in Sol, if not forever then for a long time, as a reminder of the war with the Titans? Or might Cocijo take off again and go for another superpower capital or something, or even retreat entirely to avoid the debris in Sol issue?

I wonder what the consequences of the Titan exploding in Earth orbit be for Earth. Maybe the reasons they parked it there in the first place was a hope to preserve it by a misguided belief that humans wouldn’t be dumb enough to blow it up in orbit of their own home world. Little do they know that loitering is a crime punishable by death, no matter the consequences.

 

[Phill P]

I wonder what the consequences of the Titan exploding in Earth orbit be for Earth. Maybe the reasons they parked it there in the first place was a hope to preserve it by a misguided belief that humans wouldn’t be dumb enough to blow it up in orbit of their own home world. Little do they know that loitering is a crime punishable by death, no matter the consequences.

The Thargoids have faced humanity's finest anti xeno warriors, seen their victims rescued and their damage repaired. Now they face their greatest enemy yet - Earth's Traffic Wardens.

 

[Tifu]

Despite the excellent progress being made in wresting systems away from the Thargoid's clutches - I still have this very uneasy feeling in pit of my stomach.

I'll defer my feelings of optimism till much later.

 

[Kira Goto]

Despite the excellent progress being made in wresting systems away from the Thargoid's clutches - I still have this very uneasy feeling in pit of my stomach.

I'll defer my feelings of optimism till much later.

Two possible reasons.

A. They don’t seem to be overly committed to not losing in the systems where they have a presence, even if more than usual, so they’re probably keeping forces in reserve.

B. It’s worth considering what it is driving the Thargoids to act in this way because humans are probably not enough of a threat for them to go through the extensive (and expensive) task of wiping them/us out. The only issue I see is with Frontier’s pace of storytelling we might not find out what this greater picture is for quite some time, only get some smaller hints here and there.

 

[Kira Goto]

going to be close

Not that close, since for some reason the Elite players lately manage to keep weekend swings going into the latter half of the Thargoid cycle. That one invasion is unlikely to last until the evening and WISE's will probably either clear during the night or early on Wednesday (by local standards). Wolf is probably going to go some time during the afternoon and Barnard's Star is probably not making Wednesday... maybe the Titan would have two controls left but if those launch attacks under standard rules and don't immediately convert to control, it's down to Frontier to throw in their hand (or not if they only wanted it to be a slightly eventful week while leaving those interested in AX twiddling their thumbs over the holidays or looking at whatever the Thargoid response to the Titan going is).

 

[Kayvan]

Gotta confess I'm conflicted about what I actually want, given the choice.
On the one hand, fighting Goids is a lot of fun and I'd miss AX combat when the war is over.
On the other hand, the feeling of playing whack-a-mole is not fun, when whatever you do leads to zero progress, as we had on numerous occasions during the war.
And of course that power disparity between them and us is also kinda frustrating -- Goids demonstrate that they can attack our homeworld anytime they like and there's nothing we can do about it (except clearing them out while losing billions of lives), while we don't even know where they live, much less what they want.

--

That said, today I intend to give the goids a damn good thrashing!
I refitted my Challenger again, this time with 4 Modshards, let's see how well that works. I'm a bit doubtful concerning the convergence of the dorsal hardpoint with the 3 ventral ones, but one way to find out I guess. I'm actually leaving 1 small hardpoint empty because I wouldn't know what to put in there.

 

[Kira Goto]

I'm a bit doubtful concerning the convergence of the dorsal hardpoint with the 3 ventral ones, but one way to find out I guess.

Having tried a Challenger myself… it’s not great. I had no particular issues with the C3 hardpoint of a Corvette when I tried one with 5 shards and could tell that it was doing some work helping with the hearts as well, but the Chally’s is just horribly inconvenient.

You can’t split it into a 3/2 firegroup because you know, it’s way offset from the other shard cannon which would be firing with it, and firing 3 shards at once is just asking to expose yourself to fire unless you dump two heatsinks as well. But I won’t say you should stop right now and not even try, because maybe you’ll end up liking it.

 

[Leadfoot]

I wonder what the consequences of the Titan exploding in Earth orbit be for Earth. Maybe the reasons they parked it there in the first place was a hope to preserve it by a misguided belief that humans wouldn’t be dumb enough to blow it up in orbit of their own home world. Little do they know that loitering is a crime punishable by death, no matter the consequences.

Obviously they have never seen a Fourth of July fireworks display.

We like those explosions big.

 

[Titler]

To those complaing/worrying about turn out, I think you're misunderstanding why it's so large at the moment; it's because the way the events have been advertised, the way the content has been set up for only the most hardcore previously, and frankly the poor state of Elite for so long, a lot of people will be turning up assuming this is the swansong of the Thargoids, possibly even the game, and this is the only chance they'll get to do any of the content before it, and possibly even the entire game is gone.

That it's not as good as "Insert Content Too Complex For Casual Players To Have Seen Here" isn't really an issue that healthy games should be concerned with; believe me, I've worked in the industry (EM content writer for Ultima Online) and you'll always get huge surges in players for one shot events; what the issue is, is that Thargoid content just hasn't been engaging for years to players who'd want to see it otherwise. There's been no way to play it that is persistent and low key. If some of you get what you want, and that last Thargoid mothership is permanently destroyed and the content is gone again, yes player engagement will drop off... from the game as a whole.

How would I tackle post-Sol victory (it will be victory, you can never write for anything less than temporary set back)? Thargoids retreat. in doing so a new mystery is found (tech left behind in the panicked fleeing from Sol) which will show their homeworld, content is moved to there permanently and those of you who love it as is get to fight to constantly keep them contained in a bubble away from human systems...

... And I'd add in a Ship Module that can now be unlocked that, outside of Thargoid controlled systems (where their corrosive fields leave them nice and buff, but away from that it's a lot of underpowered probing) an average player can take on every form of them, or at least go sightseeing. And give it a mechanic that opens up the map and highlights where it can be used in really, really obvious ways. Press the honker, get long distance pointer. Make it simple to find and engage with at first, make it permanent, leave the hardcore in game for those who want to always be an AXI player but there's a much clearer ramp up to what to actually do.

Whether you'll get that depends on the competence of Frontier as a whole. Not a lot of players outside the forums believe in that, which is why we're all piling in now, when it's easy to sit outside an obvious zone and see most things.

 

[Phill P]

To those complaing/worrying about turn out, I think you're misunderstanding why it's so large at the moment; it's because the way the events have been advertised, the way the content has been set up for only the most hardcore previously, and frankly the poor state of Elite for so long, a lot of people will be turning up assuming this is the swansong of the Thargoids, possibly even the game, and this is the only chance they'll get to do any of the content before it, and possibly even the entire game is gone.

That it's not as good as "Insert Content Too Complex For Casual Players To Have Seen Here" isn't really an issue that healthy games should be concerned with; believe me, I've worked in the industry (EM content writer for Ultima Online) and you'll always get huge surges in players for one shot events; what the issue is, is that Thargoid content just hasn't been engaging for years to players who'd want to see it otherwise. There's been no way to play it that is persistent and low key. If some of you get what you want, and that last Thargoid mothership is permanently destroyed and the content is gone again, yes player engagement will drop off... from the game as a whole.

How would I tackle post-Sol victory (it will be victory, you can never write for anything less than temporary set back)? Thargoids retreat. in doing so a new mystery is found (tech left behind in the panicked fleeing from Sol) which will show their homeworld, content is moved to there permanently and those of you who love it as is get to fight to constantly keep them contained in a bubble away from human systems...

... And I'd add in a Ship Module that can now be unlocked that, outside of Thargoid controlled systems (where their corrosive fields leave them nice and buff, but away from that it's a lot of underpowered probing) an average player can take on every form of them, or at least go sightseeing. And give it a mechanic that opens up the map and highlights where it can be used in really, really obvious ways. Press the honker, get long distance pointer. Make it simple to find and engage with at first, make it permanent, leave the hardcore in game for those who want to always be an AXI player but there's a much clearer ramp up to what to actually do.

Whether you'll get that depends on the competence of Frontier as a whole. Not a lot of players outside the forums believe in that, which is why we're all piling in now, when it's easy to sit outside an obvious zone and see most things.

Well, firstly we don't know if this is the end of the war or just the end of this stage of it and the claim that those fighting it just want it all to suddenly end with the last Titan is false, and secondly the new Powerplay has brought as many new players if not more than this event and is likely to involve more players long term than the war ever did. So no, the last Titan going down or away will not mean "the entire game is gone" because that's a load of hyperbolics

 

[Tifu]

My suspicion is we’ll take out this last titan then take the fight to them in some of the permit locked systems.

...and one of those systems will turn out to be Raxxla which in turn turns out to be a portal to a Thargoid city in Witchspace. Yep, that will bring everyone running back to play the game all right

 

[O'Roarke]

Cocijo is exactly where it wants to be.
It hit paydirt, and is trawling to the max.

Just because a Titan eclipses anything Humanity makes doesn't mean the Thargoids place as big a value on a Titan as we do.
They might consider losing seven Titans to get Cocijo where it is now as their "good price-performance ratio" equivalent.

Would explain their "cavalier" attitude - in not moving the other Titans at all.