Thargoid speculation

[TOM USMC]

I have been spending some time thinking about the Thargoids and trying to piece together what I have been hearing. I myself am new the center of the Milky Way and have thus been pretty much drinking bourbon and finding terraformable planets where no one would ever want to live. . .

I digress.

Assumptions:
The Thargoids seem to have a hive or insectoid kind of appearance and operation.
They seem to have a territory
They are more advance
They seem to be more creature than ship

Analogy:
SInce they seem to have a territory and are more advance, I would say a safe analogy would be to compare them with what we would consider an "infestation" with the twist being we are the "lower" life form infesting their area.

For the most part when we have an infestation, if we aren't being swarmed by the insects we just take remidial efforts to "shoo" away the pesty creatures. If there is a concern about the type of creature i.e. Wasps versus say honey bees. then we might take a more aggressive stance and attempt to kill the one or two that we do see with hope that they don't set up shop in our yard.

I would say that at this point we are the potential hostile infestation that the Thargoids will attack if we make our prescence known. with the hope (from their persective) that we won't make anymore in roads into their territory.

I do have some concerns with this analogy. When we take on a few wasps at home, we are not the "professional" we simply grabbed a can of bug killer and had at it. But. . . . we do have true pofessionals that have studied and understand the creatures that they kill, with the intent of effiecient killing and elimination on a large scale.

I am concerned that in part the grabbing of escape pods from encounters is literally part of this kind of "research".

To continue with the analogy we don't go out of our way to eliminate wasps from our neighborhood we only get concerned when they are close to us. However that is based on the percieved threat. If killer bees came into the neighborhood there would be a a more aggressive response becuase of the known threat.

Questions with potential tests and observations:

There seem to be more aggressive Thargoids and maybe there are classes of Thargoids. Like drones, soldiers and what not. There may be visual differences between the relatively docile ones and the aggressive ones. It would be interesting if folks could get detailed pictures of both. The differences may be subtle or not there at all, but I'm curious.

By developing more dangerous weapons to them will we see a more aggressive response i.e. Hyperdictions that are now aggressive? or an expansion into our territory looking for our "hive" to be eliminated.

I'm curious to hear other's opinion, bt even more curious to see if there are differences between the actual Thargoids that can be identified. I'm would encourage everyone to take it easy with their "kill count" you hive may depend on it.

o7

 

[Dutchman141]

Very interesting read.
I'm trying to define the different behavior patterns the Thargoids have.
I do think as you that they see us as the intruding species, just as we see them as such.
Although they might see us as the ones being in the wrong place there is a difference among them.
Visually they are indeed different, in the Aliens subforum there is a topic showing that some have distinct markings but there are also some who don't.
As I recall correctly, some of the "passive" hyperdicting Thargoids have no markings.
There's also a difference in color, blueish, grey and black.

I'm not sure as to why they're collecting escape pods, they already know a lot more about us then we do about them, purely for sience and to study us seems an incomplete motive imho.

What baffles me is that they aren't outright hostile, they're not on a killing spree against us, yes they attack but mostly only when provoked.
This means either that they don't know what to make of us yet or we are not their actual enemy.
Toss a ancient Guardian relic in front of them and they turn hostille against it at the spot.
Carrying a Guardian relic while they scan you increases the chance of them turning hostile significantly too.

The Guardians seem extinct but are they?

Then there is the Oresrians vs Klaxians theory.
If the Thargoids we see now are indeed Oresrians then we aren't their designated enemy, the Klaxians are.
If the Oresrians want to use us as a meatshield against the Klaxians then the absence of excessive hostility could be explained, the harvesting of escape pods would contradict this behavior to a certain degree though.

We, the humans, have a history with the Thargoids, we tried to eradicate them completely.
A pure hostile behaviour from their side would be understandable but they're not purely hostily (so far).
If after such actions from our side doesn't make them all out hostile then I wonder what the Guardians have done to trigger such a hostile reaction from them when only a relic is exposed.

There is a danger lurking with the arrival of the Thargoids but imho the danger might be different and coming from another source then we can see right now.

I will keep trying to see if it is at all possible to trigger a different reaction then hostility only.
My focus is on the ones that hyperdict us, they seem the least hostile so far, you can even use a research limpet on them without any repercussions.
To bad I can't persuade them to hyperdict me more often.

 

[ebbrell]

I think the guardians of an off spring of the, still exist somewhere. But where? We will have to wait and see.

David b from frontier has said a few times the thargoids are one of the alien races, which means there are more.

 

[TOM USMC]

I am not knee deep in lore so I am ill equipt to say with any certainty who is against whom. I'm just piecing things together with what I have heard. I think that if the Thargoids are more organic than ship then the physical locations are likely for some other alien. I wonder if the Thargoids we have seen are organic drones literally send out to do whatever they are designed to do and automated (AI).

I truly believe that the lack of hostility is in part because we really aren't a threat to them. It's like a grazing bull, its fine and could care less about you in the field, but start mucking around with it and you're gonna get the horns. I won't get into interspecies/interglactic war amongst those species, but the information about carrying certain artificacts elicits a immediate hostile response is good to know.

I think when I get back I'm going to do the only other thing that will help us understand and that is compiling a "border" of known contacts and what type. If I was head of some kind of unified defense/research, I would enlist as many pilots as possible to maintain a presence at that border keeping watch on excursions that may start happening outside of thos borders showing an advance. They would be kind of an early warning picket ships keeping watch.

In any event I really do hope that people chill out with the I notched a "kill" on my belt. I'm fine with defending yourself but the going out looking for a fight with them is a bad move strategically.

 

[mung0]

Assumptions:
The Thargoids seem to have a hive or insectoid kind of appearance and operation.

Nope, theory falls down right here imo. Different thargs respond quite differently to the presence of humans. Drawing from my own encounters & a few others I've seen reported - some are chill until provoked, some are initially passive but get touchy about their personal space, some are downright pushy & aggro, some seem to 'taunt' the player in an I-dare-you sense.

This all makes them seem very 'alien' in their unpredictability, but very NOT insect-like. While the early hyperdiction encounters felt very scripted, now that they're properly 'live' in the game, they appear to behave more like individuals.

Which makes it anyone's guess on how things will unfold..

 

[TOM USMC]

@mungo, in not an entomologist, but in the insect world where there are hives or colonies, behavior is strictly dictated by class. What one will do is based on the "job" it has in the colony. As such I think it fits pretty solid based on what I have heard.

It surely isn't a clean example because they are alien, but it can give us a frame of reference to try to anticipate reactions to our behavior.

 

[Valorin]

Here's more:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/379815-Only-Drones

 

[TOM USMC]

Good read Valorin + 1 rep

 

[mung0]

@mango, in not an entomologist, but in the insect world where there are hives or colonies, behavior is strictly dictated by class. What one will do is based on the "job" it has in the colony. As such I think it fits pretty solid based on what I have heard.

It surely isn't a clean example because they are alien, but it can give us a frame of reference to try to anticipate reactions to our behavior.

Yep that's what I'm saying disputes the theory - while the cyclops all appear to the same 'class' (at least to the naked eye they all look idientical), individuals encountered exhibit markedly differing behaviour.

 

[TOM USMC]

Ah copy your last. It could be the differences are subtle, but I hear ya. Only time will tell, and some research

 

[Silaz]

I definitely agree that the humans are clearly the initial aggressors.

We move in on their farming areas and steal their meta alloys.

Do we even know how long it takes to grow these things?

Could be they are a far more valuable crop than we would have anticipated.

They attack us back, when we attack them directly and they attack our supply ships in retaliation to our aggression.

I still haven't killed one yet, but I am enjoying the part of the game where we do try to kill them, after another unsuccessful round of tissue sample gathering...

 

[CMDR Kohen]

Im a fan of the theory that describes the Thargoids as the genetically engineered A.I.s from the Guardians.

Gone rogue, you can imagine that said A.I.s are following certain base behaviour. But you would b wrong to assume even the slightest closeness on any human behaviour or intention.

Facts are like this:

-Thargoids had a war with humans some 150 years ago, a war they lost by the Micoyd virus.
-Even if the ships appear different than the ones we faced 150 years ago, the octagonal symmetry is clearly present.
-They are collecting what appears to be human samples of shorts.
-They maintain a peaceful behaviour till interrupted or attacked. Tho this behaviour can be explained as a lack of interest on the Thargoid part.
-They behave in combat as a living organism.
-They * hate Guardians.

My speculations could be arrange into 3 main branches.

1/ The thargoid could be gathering samples of human dna for their own methods of adaptation. its easy to imagine that if these A.I.s were initially biologically engineered, its safe to assume that their "liberation" was also produce in a biological engineered independence. In other words, they are evolving to counter us, biologically and technologically.
2/ As for their intentions... we cannot assume, as i said, any correlation to our own behaviour, or anything we know for that manner. but there is one thing we know for sure they dont like, GUARDIANS. this makes the A.I. engineered theory even stronger. Its logical then that the thargoids are reacting to the event of us finding the guardian ruins... specially to the fact that we put guardian tech in their bases... But, assuming that structures are bases of any kind is precipitated. We could say that the whole point of the structures was to get us there and fiddle with them for all we know. Could be a simple "trial" to find intelligent life that can get itself notice. Therefore, we fell into a lure of shorts. A lure designed to find and reveal potentially dangerous intelligent life, like US... If anyone know "Grey Goo" you know about this theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo We could be facing a defence/offence strategy from now on.
3/ The interdictions and attacks may be part of a bigger strategy. One not revealed yet. with that firepower, they could be taking down stations in groups of 5 individuals. They are staying shy for now. They remind me a bit of Tyranids (WH40K) http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Tyranids they send small forces to scout ahead, infiltrate and get dna samples to prepare the hive for the enemy. This could be the main reason for their current behaviour. That means we havent seen the main Thargoid forces. A proof for this could be an increase on the stars affected by the encounters and a closing to the bubble, and ofc, the appearance of diferent thargoid species (i dont think they are ships)

Here it goes, hope it helps ^^

 

[TOM USMC]

It sounds like they are advancing. I read a report about a sighting inside the bubble.

Things may be accelerating faster than I would have thought. If the reports are correct then we may be past the point of trying to work with them. Time will tell