Indeed, although its multiple planetary ports mean that even if the Alert goes through we’re unlikely to lose the resultant Invasion.
Thargoid invasion - Next target systems?
- Thread starter Aleks Zuno
- Start date
But nor are we moving on.
Indeed it was a little unfortunate that HIP 25654 gained a Matrix site one week after Njorog was recaptured! I have a feeling that we are supposed to deduce some way to affect those sites, but in the meantime the only partial defence against that is to poke more holes into M. Taranis.
It is also not quite every two weeks, mind—the two-week respite gives Alert systems a three-week period if that same Control system does not attack anything else. Invasion adds a week to get past the Alert, and having damaged ports add two more respite weeks (regardless of Recovery). Something like this!
| State: | Alert | Invasion 1 | Invasion 2 | Invasion 3 | Invasion 4 | Invasion 5 | Control |
| Period: | 3 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11+ |
Systems with fewer ports may enter Control in place of Invasion 3 at the earliest, although the period is the same.
My statement was one of neutral curiosity, and given the lack of invasions for combat pilots to toy in for a while now, I’m not concerned about if it goes into invasion.
Not sure how we can do that since we have tried everything it is possible to do there, including isolating one to see if that makes the bar move.
The actual time isn't the point, not being able to stop it reoccurring is.
My statement is also neutral because it's a statement of fact. It's a fact that with the Control being unclearable, whether it is defeated at the Alert stage or Invasion stage is irrelevant. It's not insurmountable at either stage.
So… I’m not really seeing any correlation. I guess it being attacked is ‘bad’ from an RP standpoint, but I’m looking more to the gameplay perspective of having some more interesting things happen in the war*, providing Njorog ever reaches invasion state.
*Bar the whole deal around Scythes. Which I have been very consciously avoiding. Not so much out of inability to deal with, as unwillingness. Creepy things.
PS - Yes, I realize it is also partly down to Frontier to throw in the spice, but so far, they’ve only been trickling it here and there.
PS(2) - Also aware that the current direction of the war situation is fun for a number of people, and I certainly don’t mean to disrespect their efforts in any way.
Between what and what?
It's not an RP situation, it's about making real progress instead of going round in circles and letting the enemy become even harder to defeat. Which has now happened.
They're a pain but can be evaded or destroyed. Fun way to clear Alerts, take a hull tank (I chose the FAS) with 2 ECMs and 4 azimuth multis and one escape pod in the hold and go into any Alert. You'll be interdicted relentlessly every time you go into SC, so kill them until you run out of ammo. We found it a fun way to finish off an Alert if we didn't quite get enough samples, where another sample run would be OTT. Plus it's a break in the action.
We need combat to count for more in Control systems, that's the real problem, not a lack of Invasions. More of those will happen soon enough.
AX pilots are not giving up because there's nothing to do or for a lack of Invasions but because fighting in Controls is not worth the effort when 6 days combat with hundreds of kills per day only equates to about 2000 samples. Fix that and we might get somewhere.
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Well, I certainly agree there. But it kind of feels like Frontier has sort of given up on any kind of major/interim balancing of the war(or if they haven’t, it’s taking them a long while to adjust some numbers… which I guess doesn’t have to be a bad thing).
It’s also kind of their fault controls are basically impossible to clear with combat, especially closer in, after the addition of the AX CZs to them. Though those might also not draw those players that are only/more interested in the port defense scenarios where you don’t need a bunch of ammo synths and other stuff to repair in-field.
A fact I’m sure you’re aware of, but also contributes to controls not clearing as quickly as they could be.
I'm aware of it just as I am aware of how it's not so much extra time that it needs to be exaggerated. To experienced AX pilots and factions synthing and repairs are second nature. Most organised AX groups have at least one carrier a jump away. Our AX allies had no problem fighting in Controls until it became apparent that it was like banging your head against a wall in terms of progress. The last thing they cared about was the small amount of extra time to jump to the carrier and back compared to having a handy repair stop in system, it was no more than a minor inconvenience, what mattered was if it worked.
In fact, when the war began and we were doing Invasions together our allies in Vang didn't want ground ports either, they wanted outposts because they were not as buggy as ground ports and large stations, so a lot of our targets in the early days combined a large station for evacs with an attacked outpost for AX.
Combat pilots go where the fight is, not just where it's easy and not just on home turf. They take the fight to the enemy. Casuals looking for easy ground kills in shardacondas do not represent them. But it also has to be worth their while to go into Controls and at the moment it isn't. This is not the fault of a lack of Invasions but a fault with Controls which are in desperate need of a balance pass to make combat worth doing there. If that gets done you'll see what they can do.
Even then I have often wondered if we are supposed to win at this point. The Thargoids began by taking over more systems than we could possibly have prevented even if we had all known exactly what to do from day 1 and magically worked together telepathically, so it's obvious that we were never supposed to stop that. Taking territory before we could stop them was always the plan. Then, with the sheer amount of work just to clear one system near a Titan it also seems obvious that we are not meant to be able to clear everything in a week either, especially if it is several systems inside 15ly.
My gut feeling is that the next stage will be to find a way inside the Titans to weaken them and make the systems near them easier to clear, or at least not so it would take the entire playerbase to clear one system a week. I don't think it was intended for us to clear them before the next stage of whatever this is.
Aleks may be right that we are missing some way to clear the barnacle systems but I'm damned if I know what it might be. Wish I did, I'd be on it.
Nip them in the bud, as it were.
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Very much this, we can access the Barnacles without issue but what we do with them is a head scratcher. It's obvious the revenants are guarding the barnacles specifically (though gaps are huge) but as yet the barnacles themselves seem inert. I doubt that will remain the case so it's 'hurry up and wait' so to speak.
Victories in Col 285 Sectors OM-J b10-0 and SS-H b11-4, Synuefe OU-D b45-0, Arietis Sector JR-V b2-2, HIP 21654, 80 Tauri and 78 Theta-2 Tauri! Already the Scythes are set to fail their escape pod quotas again this week, and I presume we have an AXI going system-to-system at M. Indra.
Kurumanit is well on the way to a relatively safe completion with a fifth after one day, and very well done to those at HIP 30502 for moving it a seventh in the same time! The latter lies almost exactly halfway between HR 2204 and Omumba in terms of strength, that it has been dealt quite the heavy blow, and the prior consistency at M. Hadad gives me good confidence in lending a bit of support.
Alerts at 07:50 25th August 3309:
HIP 23716 Alert 60% — Taranis 18 Ly, 2314 Ls starport, 2351 Ls outpost, 2354 Ls planet
HIP 20019 Alert 30% *30.2% — Indra 26 Ly, 786 Ls starport, 1060 Ls outpost
Luggerates Alert 22% — Oya 22 Ly, 339 Ls outpost
Holvandalla Alert 18% — Raijin 21 Ly, 86 Ls starport
Muruidooges Alert 8% *9.7% — Hadad 18 Ly, 1018 Ls starport
Evictions:
Kurumanit Control 20% *21.5% — Cocijo 20 Ly, 3518 strength
HIP 30502 Control 14% — Hadad 14 Ly, 18.2k strength
Clean-up:
Col 285 Sector SW-D b12-2 Control 72% — Thor 26 Ly, empty, 124 strength
Col 285 Sector ZE-P c6-15 Alert 30% — Cocijo 18 Ly, empty
Short of asking Canonn Interstellar Research or checking if Ram Tah has any useful conversation choices, I wish I knew a bit more about that sort of thing. My loose thoughts are:
Kurumanit is well on the way to a relatively safe completion with a fifth after one day, and very well done to those at HIP 30502 for moving it a seventh in the same time! The latter lies almost exactly halfway between HR 2204 and Omumba in terms of strength, that it has been dealt quite the heavy blow, and the prior consistency at M. Hadad gives me good confidence in lending a bit of support.
Alerts at 07:50 25th August 3309:
HIP 23716 Alert 60% — Taranis 18 Ly, 2314 Ls starport, 2351 Ls outpost, 2354 Ls planet
HIP 20019 Alert 30% *30.2% — Indra 26 Ly, 786 Ls starport, 1060 Ls outpost
Luggerates Alert 22% — Oya 22 Ly, 339 Ls outpost
Holvandalla Alert 18% — Raijin 21 Ly, 86 Ls starport
Muruidooges Alert 8% *9.7% — Hadad 18 Ly, 1018 Ls starport
Evictions:
Kurumanit Control 20% *21.5% — Cocijo 20 Ly, 3518 strength
HIP 30502 Control 14% — Hadad 14 Ly, 18.2k strength
Clean-up:
Col 285 Sector SW-D b12-2 Control 72% — Thor 26 Ly, empty, 124 strength
Col 285 Sector ZE-P c6-15 Alert 30% — Cocijo 18 Ly, empty
Short of asking Canonn Interstellar Research or checking if Ram Tah has any useful conversation choices, I wish I knew a bit more about that sort of thing. My loose thoughts are:
- Do the Matrix sites have any comparison to the Guardian blueprint sites?
- One of the large spires glowed briefly while I was there.
- Was there anything on the ground which might accept a relic?
- Or, a green relic?
- Matrix sites and Titans are both immovable item-providers.
- Is there anything at a Matrix site which could involve Titan samples?
- Is there anything about a Titan which could involve Coral Sap?
- Scythes carry things into the Titan.
- Is there a way to feed it something disruptive?
- Has anything been gleaned from the ancient battleground mentioned in the recent Pilots Federation Alert?
- Were there any other Maelstrom items which have no apparent use yet?
A better question might be which ones do have a use... six different types of samples can be gotten from the titans that so far have no practical use at all. And that's in addition to the existing thargoid salvage items - technological samples, biological matter, resin...
There wasn't anything that seemed to react while I was there.
Getting an SRV close to a barnacle would be challenging due to the detection range of the Revenants.
What was happening when you saw the spear roots glow?
I'm thinking more in terms of the Thargoid machines in the Pleiades sites as a possible interaction type.
It's clear it's Odyssey only content, (atmospheric surface) which might indicate something on foot but this far nothing obvious for either the Maverick or Artemis tools.
Perhaps we're supposed to deposit some canister of pathogen or something...
At the military settlements revenant reinforcement is triggered by a scout 'checking in' with the revenants, but that doesn't seem to occur at the Matrix sites.
It may be that the site itself requests the reinforcement somehow, but again an unknown.
I suspect the Matrix sites relate to the asteroids around the Titans, it might be worth taking another look at them. Has anyone cracked one open?
Getting an SRV close to a barnacle would be challenging due to the detection range of the Revenants.
What was happening when you saw the spear roots glow?
I'm thinking more in terms of the Thargoid machines in the Pleiades sites as a possible interaction type.
It's clear it's Odyssey only content, (atmospheric surface) which might indicate something on foot but this far nothing obvious for either the Maverick or Artemis tools.
Perhaps we're supposed to deposit some canister of pathogen or something...
At the military settlements revenant reinforcement is triggered by a scout 'checking in' with the revenants, but that doesn't seem to occur at the Matrix sites.
It may be that the site itself requests the reinforcement somehow, but again an unknown.
I suspect the Matrix sites relate to the asteroids around the Titans, it might be worth taking another look at them. Has anyone cracked one open?
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I feel like we’re currently story-blocked into doing nothing about the barnacle matrix sites, so it’s just a place to borrow coral sap from and otherwise ‘enjoy’ as a creepy atmospheric(in the figurative sense) environment. Whatever purpose they serve, Frontier obviously wants them around for more than a week.
If I end up proven wrong on that, feel entirely free to call me back on this post.
You could say there’s some poor choice required on the player’s behalf if they find nobody in Open(or whichever PG they’re in), but if they don’t play in those modes, or are just active around a lesser frequented Maelstrom/Titan… maybe they also just don’t want to have to jump out of the system (semi-)frequently just to fix up. Whether you agree with those considerations or not is a different matter.
Then there’s also Glaives, otherwise known as the Guardian weapon deleter. Another reason that might put people off from fighting in Controls, especially if they can’t find other players(or at least a player that has an appropriate fit to deal with them - a role I’d occasionally be happy to cover myself, but as is, I don’t really do AX, or at least no active aggression against the Thargoids… unless AX reactivations with no dead Thargoids count as such).
That aside, I find it curious there was a preference for outposts in AX around your… circles? Whatever to call it. I know about the Thargoids spinning around with the large starports, but other than Hydras going missing(never showing up) at the end of planetary CZs, I don’t quite recall ever seeing any huge gamebreakers myself.
Was also willing to do stuff around the outposts to fight when I did. Controls, well, we(players in general) weren’t doing active retakes when I fought more, so yeah.
If I end up proven wrong on that, feel entirely free to call me back on this post.
So you made your point there, and I don’t necessarily disagree. But you’re looking at an organized group who all know where they’re going. I personally was looking at it more from the perspective of, say, a solo player, who may not feel a great incentive to partake in combat around control systems as, if they leave to go and fix up/rearm at a carrier, they will end up resetting instances over and over and over… or go through a lot of materials to synth for ammo(and limpets, if required). Same example could work for someone just not finding any players in Open or a private group.
You could say there’s some poor choice required on the player’s behalf if they find nobody in Open(or whichever PG they’re in), but if they don’t play in those modes, or are just active around a lesser frequented Maelstrom/Titan… maybe they also just don’t want to have to jump out of the system (semi-)frequently just to fix up. Whether you agree with those considerations or not is a different matter.
Then there’s also Glaives, otherwise known as the Guardian weapon deleter. Another reason that might put people off from fighting in Controls, especially if they can’t find other players(or at least a player that has an appropriate fit to deal with them - a role I’d occasionally be happy to cover myself, but as is, I don’t really do AX, or at least no active aggression against the Thargoids… unless AX reactivations with no dead Thargoids count as such).
That aside, I find it curious there was a preference for outposts in AX around your… circles? Whatever to call it. I know about the Thargoids spinning around with the large starports, but other than Hydras going missing(never showing up) at the end of planetary CZs, I don’t quite recall ever seeing any huge gamebreakers myself.
Was also willing to do stuff around the outposts to fight when I did. Controls, well, we(players in general) weren’t doing active retakes when I fought more, so yeah.
Plus the ‘engineering’ materials you can pick off their hull which really don’t do anything other than look pretty in the materials screen.
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Well, for some people it can be difficult to understand, but it wasn't just about ez mode. Definetely not for all people.
CZs around stations, especially in mix with planets were something new and fresh. Personally I like combat around assets much more than in empty space (human CZs around at least installations when?
I know, some of them can spawn scenarios, but I would like to see more combat scenarios in this style).+It created nice opporunities for other gameplays. Diving in passenger ship directly into inferno of battle, landing in burning station, taking injured people and going away to safe space was one of the most satisfying things which I did in game.
Same with planetary CZ when I seen jumping capital ship. Burning port, capital ship, shooting humans and alliens was pure chaos. And of course, it provided some difficulty tiers. Old school CZs existed. CZs around space port with repairs also existed. CZs around planets with repairs and without swarms existed. This times were times where my squadron had wing (sometimes multiple) AX sessions each week for first months
Bur probably I'm only casual, because I'm looking at anything more than "oh, I can pew pew here".
It was not those four main roots in the middle of the site; it was an oddly-shaped spire some distance to the side, perhaps a kilometer or two away. I was hovering a bit above the site while another Commander was on the ground with a Scorpion, occasionally on-foot, although I imagine it unlikely that anything we did actually caused the glow.
For perhaps a couple of seconds, viewing from around the middle of the site and facing outwards, the entire side of the spire displayed what appeared to be bright, glowing red markings. It was a bit in the distance from where I was hovering, so that description may be a little off, although doubtless said hovering helped to notice it originally.
Sorry for having no better description than that; after we are done with HIP 9709 later today, I will see if I can return with video recording active! It may be nothing, perhaps something which occurs when Revenants appear.
I don't see them getting removed at all, though we might be able to affect the Alerts they throw out. But who knows at this point?
I noticed the same thing yesterday, at HIP 19870, a thargoid barnacle site on a 3 b planet, when I was about 2 km away in my ICourier, the ends of some of the laid roots (not the main spear roots), were shimmering, if that means anything, but when I got closer, that light disappeared.
Basically, barnacle sites remind me of guardian sites, because yesterday I noticed from a little higher height that there are 6 barnacles around spear roots, which looks like 6 pylons.
Actually, I don't know if each barnacle matrix has 6 barnacles?
Each barnacle has a ring at the bottom, with what appears to be a bed in which something is to be deposited. It could be escape pod, grelic, coral sap, thargoid probe or sensor - who knows?
Maybe the order in which the barnacles could possibly be activated is also important?
This is something that should be investigated, but it seems to me that a team is needed, to take down the revenants while one cmdr experiments in SRV.
I would like to know how many things have been tried so far with those barnacles, so that I don't waste my time on something that has already been tried and doesn't work. Maybe cmdr Phill P knows, or someone else? Is there a Discord channel with such information?
And of course, it is also possible that, for now, those sites simply cannot be activated. I also tried PWXS on those sites, with no results.
They all have seven - there’s always six surrounding the barnacle in almost hexagon-like form, with one of them offset to the front. The seventh is usually offset to the side somewhere, position depending on layout(I think there’s 3 or 4 different types, where the surrounding structures and seventh barnacle position change - the center always remains the same).
Have a bunch of screencaps but none immediately available - though you can consult the spreadsheet for bird’s eye view pics of each(except for one so far, because of being stuck on a tidally locked planet). Not sure if shape is quite as discernible from as far up as those have been taken.
Needless to say, I find both the chosen shape and number to be rather curious, as they don’t appear to resemble other Thargoid constructs in that regard.