The Thargoid War: Thoughts and Feelings

[Bruce G]

Greetings Commanders,

We're checking in again to see whether you're enjoying the Thargoid War at large. We recently posted this thread to ask for feedback on the specific mechanics, let us know about any bugs or issues and technical things of that nature. We'd like thank you all for the feedback you provided. It has been immensely helpful in working with the developers to plan the direction of future changes. We have already started to roll out these plans the form of recent balancing adjustments and changes to the weekly reset system. If you have further feedback of this kind, please make sure to leave it in that thread!

This time, we're checking in to better understand how you feel about the War. Here are some questions to give an idea of what we're trying to understand:

• Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?
• Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?
• Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?
• What do you think of this direction for the narrative?

Once again, please keep any feedback on specific gameplay related issues or suggestion, to this thread. Thanks in advance!
O7

 

[INaeem]

Peace and long life. Live long and prosper.

 

[Sighman]

• Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?

Yes, it's added an engaging layer of activity to the game. The forums I frequent are showing a lot of players asking about getting into AX combat for the first time.

The new stabiliser modules are great. Lots of new AX ship builds to explore.

• Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?

Yes, I frequently participate in conflict zones, preferably in larger groups. Still doable solo or in small teams, but it's nice to take on the hydras at the end. The new kill counts and improved material rewards for the 'kill x interceptors' missions added after 14.02 are a big incentive.

• Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?

I think humanity will keep the thargoids out of the most important systems, and if we eventually win I imagine it will be after a long struggle.

• What do you think of this direction for the narrative?

Enjoying it. The stakes will ramp up as the thargoids get closer to the bubble, which means more inhabited systems to defend each week, along with difficult decisions on which to save and which to let fall.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

I have to say that I've avoided the whole thing. That's not to say it isn't engaging or bad in any way, it's just not for me. Having said that, it does add bite to the background story and immersiveness of the game in general.

I think - and for the sake of that poor horse's health - I'd be more involved if we could fight 'goids on foot.

Oh, and I did try some Thargpid ship fights once but I was gifted the rebuy screen very swiftly i

I also tried a power on of an abandoned settlement due to the war but it was exactly the same as any other power up. These really need a different atmosphere... slime on the walls, egg sacks, weird noises...

 

[Samoria]

While I appreciate the idea of a massive narrative event in which you can participate and invest yourself in the long term, there is plenty of other activities I am prioritizing for now (I am not even Elite after all these years). I also hope that the updates to come will add more than just thargoid things and that odyssey will expand a bit, with missions in stations for example (just an example, please don't roast me)

 

[Erratic Spawn]

I like the war and the fact that with attacked stations AX combat beginners like myself can get involved. Never fought interceptors before (update 14), now I have a few under my belt. The two big annoyances I've encountered in this context are:
1. Please, please turn "Crimes reported against me" OFF for NPC AX pilots. Or get rid of the notoriety, at least in this case. From a lore point of view we are "risking our lives" for those factions when we are fighting and one single mishit means no gameplay for two hours. Extremely frustrating.
2. I see no logical reason why a station that repairs, gives me ammo and fuel is not able to restock my limpets. Please change that, is simply makes no sense.

I can't say anything about humanity's chances to win respectively what the direction of the narrative is, because all we have been doing is to fight invasion since the arrival of the maelstroms. With some success it seems, but the bigger picture for me at least is not clear right now, so what those wins are worth it is probably too early to tell.

 

[marx]

Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?

Nah. I'm out exploring, and there's no Thargoid War for that.

Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?

Nope. When the update was out, I checked the Maelstorms and gave all the gameplay associated with the war a fair try, but since at its core it would be me doing the same things, just in a different context and environments, I got back to what I enjoyed doing more. Exploration and Odyssey gameplay.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?

Chances to win? At the current pace, it seems like the war is going to drag out practically forever.

What do you think of this direction for the narrative?

The narrative is fine. I prefer to focus on the gameplay instead. So hey, what about all those distant Guardian systems, or about the Guardian constructs? Maybe we could have something to look for out in the deep galaxy?

 

[Northpin]

• Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?

Generally yes

• Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?

For a mercenary, tangible and immediate rewards are always in sight. So yea, moar* credits

*(nope, that doesnt mean you need to increase payments - it was just a figure of speech)

• Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?

To be blunt honest, i'm neither.
I'm well aware this is a FD lead narrative and it will go where the narrative teams want it to go and not where the player base want it (which is a really good thing, no complains here)

• What do you think of this direction for the narrative?

I'm not really a combat focused pilot, but i'm not running from combat either.
And my activities since U14 hit did evolve a bit around exobiology* else most of my time was spent building AX ships and combatting thargoids

However, i would love to have a less combat focused narrative (not really a complain tho)

*(but not that much since i wasnt really happy with thresholds increases and rank nerfing)

 

[AlSki]

I've always played Elite/FFE/ED as a lone wolf pilot. Before the current War, I was either enjoying the CG wars (Emporer's Dawn etc), or using the BGS to push my factions into wars for territory. So...

• Yes, I am enjoying the opportunities to defend our home with other CMDRs. I am slowly getting less rebuys and tackling harder scenarios.
• Yes, both directly on the frontline, and also with CGs etc to advance the balance
• Neither. I am expecting it will be balanced to prolong gameplay opportunities and provide additional narratives. I expect the narratives are more likely to heavily affect outcomes, e.g. newer weapons on either side.
  Currently I see us holding systems we target, while Thargoids push unopposed in systems than we cannot defend. I expect new mechanics to make humanity more effective over time, so the questions are when these events happen, if at all. Alternatively, an additional wave of maelstroms or enhanced Thargoid tech could overwhelm us.
• I wonder where it will go next. In some ways its been quiet on the narrative front, but that has left the time to engage in the wars, rather than get dragged off to some other CG. e.g. If everyone suddenly had to go gather green relics, would we take massive systems losses?
  I wonder if the next big update will introduce new fields of combat, like on the surface, or just different mechanics around same areas.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

• Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?

Immensely enjoying! It motivated me to start using my alternate account which has been languishing in the Bubble and only had say about 48-72 hours of gameplay to him.

It also got me out playing in Open, whereas previously I had been a primarily Solo player as an Explorer. I've spoken with other players I've teamed up with at random on various planet bases as we battled Scouts and Interceptors. I also learned not to be at all bothered about my ship(s) exploding, compared to my other "main" account where I become attached to each ship of my fleet. (An explorer's ship exploding is rather a big deal due to loss of data)

• Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?

Very much so - I've tried rescue missions but I find more enjoyment comes from battling Interceptors. I've had to do some grind like getting Guardian modules/plans/materials, which is kind of a boring task which takes away time from battling Goids. Engineering is the same - but is necessary in order to not have your ship quickly dissolved by a Hydra.

• Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?

A bit of both, the pessimistic side comes from silly stuff like getting a 400Cr fine for "reckless weapons fire" - we're firing indiscriminate Gaurdian Shard Cannons at massive bullet-soaking Hydras, and some jobsworth somewhere is worried about one of their faction member's ship's paintwork being scratched by a Guardian Shard projectile!? And finding where to get one's name cleared for such an outrageous crime can take hours if you're not prepared to "hand yourself in". Turns out it's quicker to "hand yourself in" and end up 3 jumps away in some prison ship.

That can be a major annoyance and demotivator.

• What do you think of this direction for the narrative?

It's definitely interesting me more in the game of late. It's been ages since I did more than just jump around and sample plants on surfaces in my "main" account. I'm hoping the narrative eventually involves more interaction with the Goids other than just pew-pew though. How that will happen I don't know. Communicating with them?

 

[MQC]

Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?
Yes, I like the feeling that we are engaged in a war with another alien race, and I like that, even though it happens in the habitable bubble, it doesn't necessarily affect the whole bubble (at least for the moment), but I feel that, beyond participating in the ingame events, I have no other ability to make it change the outcome of events.

Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?
Yes, but I would like there to be an aspect of seeking information, knowledge, etc... parallel to the war. I wish there were small missions more on the "science side" or the "strategic side" that weren't necessarily getting you into PvE against Thargoid ships. And being too much to ask, it would be great if some kind of gameplay comes out that pirates and disreputable people could take advantage of in parallel to the war.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?
My current feeling is that I understand that humanity will win because narratively events will occur that will make victory feasible, and so it will end up happening. That's the feeling; that things will appear in Galnet/ingame that will give us the tools to win.

What do you think of this direction for the narrative?
I find it interesting and attractive, but as I said before, completely detached from external agents; I understand that it is a directed narrative, it is understandable and I accept it, but it is inevitable that this causes that feeling of "what has to happen, will happen, and it does not depend on me".

I'm glad Frontier is trying to incorporate something new and of this scale into the game, and I'm glad you're continually asking for feedback... but the feeling I get is; if you want this war gameplay to be active for quite some time, it's going to be necessary to incorporate new playable mechanics every x months... otherwise it may end up being monotonous in the long run.

o7

 

[effingjoe]

Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?

Not really, for a few reasons:

• It's extremely repetitive, at least the aspects of it I know of. Every loop is a two action loop-- do thing, turn in thing, do same thing, turn in same thing, ad nauseam. I have tried to break it up between combat, cargo, and passenger missions but each one quickly grows boring.
• While it's much better feedback than stuff like the BGS, it's still hard to feel/see that any one player is making any progress. If I'm focusing on one of the many maelstrom-groups that aren't being focused on by the wider community, I can spend all day (or as long as I can stomach, anyway) grinding away at the above-mentioned loops and not see one chevron move. Worse, is that I can be reasonably sure I won't make it to the 33% mark, so my grinding away will almost certainly be erased at the weekly tick-- which very quickly destroys any motivation I have to play at all. With the BGS, slow progress is still progress. With the thargoid war, slow progress is no progress.
• I actually enjoy on foot combat and I haven't been on foot once since the start of this narrative.

Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?

I was motivated to defend my slice of the bubble but the reasons mentioned above have quickly removed that motivation.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?

It's a video game. Fdev will undoubtedly press a thumb to the scale as much as necessary to ensure human victory. I have no doubts about it.

What do you think of this direction for the narrative?

It's slow. Sweet baby carrots, it's so slow.

 

[StellarKnight]

• Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?
• Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?
• Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?
• What do you think of this direction for the narrative?

Big fat NO as it made AX topic from niche gameplay to the major one while problems with the core mechanics are ignored for years:

• no new ships
• no new space weapons/modules - the CG ones don't count as you can't get most if you were away that week.
• no Engineering quality of life improvements
• no revamp on crime and punishment system
• no PowerPlay improvements and there are still broken stuff since the Ody release

 

[aRJay]

Greetings Commanders,

07

…

• Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?

More than expected. Though slightly disappointed that the Thargoids are so predictable.

• Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?

Some of it, I enjoy the passenger evacuation missions because the passengers do not interact with me it is a great shame that there is no flexibility about payment of material rewards and it would be good to just load the hold cabins to capacity rather than mess around trying to fit whole groups.

• Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?

Short term humanity will win, but the Thargoids have been around a lot longer than us so will probably beat us in another few thousand years.

• What do you think of this direction for the narrative?

I like that at the level of attention I give this the narrative isn’t obvious or obtrusive,

Though I am still worried that it might turn Elite into a mere scripted game.

Once again, please keep any feedback on specific gameplay related issues or suggestion, to this thread. Thanks in advance!
O7

 

[Darkman Returns]

• Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?
  • Not really. As usual the great visuals, sound and effort with narrative is let down by linear, repetitive gameplay mechanics.
• Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?
  • I was at first but the CZ bugs, SLF lag issues/perception, lack of new gameplay mechanics and FDev moving the goalposts has taken the shine off it for me.
• Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?
  • Neither. FDev will just wave their magic wand and fudge the outcome, which is understandable; I just wish they would do it behind the scenes to seem more like organic gameplay and not just gerrymandering to make it easy.
• What do you think of this direction for the narrative?
  • It was predictable given the way the CG rewards were stacked but I really liked the idea that if we didn't work together the Thargoids would take over. Once FDev started overtly changing things to make it easier it just seems another missed opportunity.

 

[Fnord Velkor]

This time, we're checking in to better understand how you feel about the War. Here are some questions to give an idea of what we're trying to understand:

• Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?
• Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?
• Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?
• What do you think of this direction for the narrative?

1. No but there would appear to be a huge number of players that like the combat aspects.

2. No - didn't enjoy the combat, felt the hauling was too repetitive.

3. I feel that the game is slanted to be hugely in favour of Human space lost to the aliens - presumably a deus ex machina will be unveiled by FDEV at some point.

4. The whole maelstrom blitz was just clumsy to my mind, the instant take-over of so many systems was nonsense, the idea that factions would not combine to combat the invaders universally was just stupid. In summary, I feel this narrative is nonsensical and detracts from the ethos of the game and exhibits the overall primacy of combat in FDEV thinking.

P.S. I am now spending time in the Formidine Rift while you muck about with this nonsense.

 

[xzanfr]

I'm not enjoying any of it, as noted in my post on the previous thread.
Along with IRL stuff, its given me good cause to go on a hiatus from ED and enjoy other games.
(Relevant paperwork has been updated)

 

[Rubbernuke]

What do you think of this direction for the narrative?

Its early days I suppose, with AEGIS reforming and the superpowers kind of starting to hold hands more. What I would like to see is more of the Far God Cult sort of sulking about in the background, offering clandestine missions and being (or maybe not, for tinfoils sake) part of the BGS that ties into Thargoid incursions- a bit like Genestealer Cults and the Tyranids (ask Paul re WH40K lore).

It would be interesting to see this play out, where totally dynamically via the BGS those who align with Thargoids support these guys attract Thargoids through these actions.

I suppose this is a long winded way of suggesting you have the overt human response sorted but the narrative (via gameplay and perhaps Galnet) for any other views lacking.

 

[Ned Flandalorian]

I have found myself very unmotivated to participate in any of the thargoid war content since update 14.02 dropped, due to it either not fixing existing issues or introducing new ones:

• New power restoration missions: bugged, missions are offered for settlements that are already powered.
• Uninhabited thargoid controlled systems are now 5-10x more difficult to make any progress in (listed as a known issue for 2+ weeks with no action taken).
• New conflict zones in control systems: irrelevant due to previous comment (control systems rebalanced too aggressively).
• Salvaging black boxes and escape pods: bugged, rescue ships are paying far less than regular stations. Not listed as an affirmative war action for uninhabited systems.
• Delivering thargoid tissue samples: no demand at the rescue ships so poor prices. Not listed as an affirmative war action for uninhabited systems.
• "Erroneous messages intended for patrolling AX pilots have been stopped during AX conflict zones" doesn't seem to have been implemented at all, they are still obnoxiously chatty.
• "Thargoid Interceptors will no longer stray far from settlement conflict zones" they still do, usually chasing HE seekers fired from the settlement which occasionally zoom off forever into space instead of detonating.
• Visiting large barnacle sites still crashes the game, including the specific site referenced as fixed in the patch notes
• "Improvements have been made toward AX Conflict Zones occasionally getting stuck progressing to the next stage." Whatever these improvements were, much greater improvements are still needed. Particularly around coriolis stations where the interceptors will start rotating around the station's axis when another player docks.

Due to war mechanics no longer allowing us to reclaim territory, we are being railroaded into defending the same systems over and over again which is both monotonous and frustrating due to broken gameplay.

 

[Alec Turner]

[*]Are you enjoying the Thargoid War?

Yes.

[*]Are you motivated to engage in the gameplay associated with the war?

I have been (done a fair amount of rescue missions, scout combat and re-power settlement missions). I do worry about the effects of burnout tho', both in the big picture where you're probably currently seeing the highest engagement you're likely to get in the main war combat grind (sorry to use that word but it's the easiest way to convey what I mean), and also in day to day things like repowered settlements not staying repowered (mmo gameplay necessity I suppose) and thereby making it blatantly apparent that we're just playing a game, pushing arbitrary numbers, and not actually making a difference to the perceived galaxy. That said I fully expect new gameplay elements to appear soon so the war will no doubt continue to engage the community for a good long while yet.

[*]Are you optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's chances to win?

Sorry, I'd love to give an in-universe answer but I can't help but be aware of game dev considerations. I'm optimistic that new tools will arrive that will allow us to pentrate the maelstroms and that eventually we'll be able to destroy what lies at the heart and push the Thargoids back to a smaller stronghold. However, I also suspect that as the Thargoid forces are concentrated into a smaller area they'll become harder to defeat and that we may never fully remove all presence from the bubble (a good thing in one way since this means this new gameplay mechanic will continue for those both new to the game or that still enjoy it and wish to keep playing it).

[*]What do you think of this direction for the narrative?

It's great and I'm interested to see where the story goes next although a galactic war does necessarily dominate the news and I worry that non Thargoid war stories will fail to take center stage and leave those disinterested in the war somewhat feeling left out.