Update 15 Thargoid Scout damage.

[Wisho]

I think I've got a lead on this one. FD, please read

Yesterday I wanted to try a weird experiment on a Cyclops. So to avoid the annoying swarm, I equipped a few AXMCs in order to ask my scout friends to leave me alone, and went to the first planetary CZ. Like everyone, my experiment went bust when I barely could escape a tight-packed 10-team of enraged... scouts.

So I set aside my experiment, went back in and tried to just watch. This is the story I saw every time :
§1 : everybody pops in, like 6 humans+me and 3 scouts, scouts wiped out before you know it. I go "hiding" a few kms away from the ground, stop, stay cold/silent and look down.

§2 : "Frame shift anomaly", scouts wave pops in, and terminates all the human NPCs at a stunning rate. Yes, even condas pop like corn.

§3 : "Interceptors coming in hot" (nobody left to say that BTW :-D), pop in and spin around like "what am I supposed to do in here". Scouts keep popping in, finding no target and... stacking around the station like they did before. The human NPCs that jump in are instantly vaporized. Sometimes I aggro a stray one, I either destroy it (single scout) or leave (interceptor).

§4 : At some point I get spotted no matter how, and suddenly ALL (yes, ALL) the scouts packed around the station turn to me at once and rush to me. Time to low wake !

So yeah, the behaviour has changed, and it totally screwed up the Thargoids vs NPCs balance, just like when a Medusa pops in and shreds the humans within minutes.
Maybe the scouts buff could be dealt with alone, but not together with that change.

There's no way a CZ (or even AX ?) can be played solo now, so I'm going back to mats farming... Sorry FD, please fix that ASAP if you don't want mankind to litterally give up your cool-until-now mega-event.

 

[Sirrion Rising]

Same experience here, 6 scouts shredded my Shard Conda just trying to leave a surface base, by the time I got to Low Wake I was under 50% hull. Noting i have a heavily enginnered hull tank. I can kill about 7 or 8 Cyclops in a row and take less damage than what that handful of scouts did in less than a minute. The rate of damage was faster than a Hydra when I am face tanking one.

 

[thePlague4u]

is this intended? Scouts are doing WAY more damage than before, I mean just in a typical Thargoid interdiction I would take maybe 1-2% damage just boosting away and jumping out, but now Ill take 15-20% hull damage just from a few scout potshots. this cant possibly be as intended. Ive also heard of folks just giving up on invasion sites because their heavily armored Sharacondas are just getting shredded by 2 or 3 little scouts. doing more damage than even a Hydra,

Ok, so I'm not the only one that noticed the scout buff. Got interdicted and it's scouts or an interceptor or 2. But this time they took 10% off my hull before boosting far enough away at 548 to where I was clear. Did they also get a speed increase? They seemed to be able to keep me in their firing range for way much longer. Usually I might take 1 or 2% damage.

 

[Sublime]

I often get the feeling (not just from ED) that game designers don't have a middle setting.

They would if they played their own game and had any idea how it their mechanics work.

 

[Wlfric]

I often get the feeling (not just from ED) that game designers don't have a middle setting.

They have a "we don't play our own game" setting and a "waffle between trying to please the elitists complaining about it being too easy and the common mortal complaining about it being insurmountable." setting.

 

[BDelacroix]

Already talked to death but my cutter which has been around since the old days of thargoid fighting took a much more severe beating with 4 scouts chasing me than 1 hunter. Other encounters were with a much less capable ship. So something is definitely off. Intended or not, would be nice to know either way.

 

[Martind Forlon]

It's Important to Note that...

• Of course, there are additional aspects of Update 15 that many of you are passionate to know more about, including your feedback on the Fleet Carrier grouping UI, reports of an unexpected increase in Thargoid Scout aggression and others.

Please do accept our thanks for your patience as the team digest and carry out their investigations. We'll keep you in the loop of information and developments whenever possible o7

Update 15 Recap

Greetings Commanders. It's only Thursday - we can hardly believe it. It's been another 'Big Update Week' and the energy from this one has been no less than the previous - all for their own rights and reasons of course! That's what makes this Galaxy so unique. So with that, here's a little...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[exillivos]

Alright! My report from a planetary AX-Conflict Zone in my Shardconda:

Managed the first 2 waves, got swarmed by a dozen scouts in the third because all my fellow NPCs had been killed. Lost 20% of my health in 10 seconds during my landing.

Redeployed once most scouts had wanderd off hunting down npcs somewhere in orbit (clearly the smart choice to run away and don't look back!).

Killed three cyclopses -> 3 Glaives Drop in.
Apparently they have the same effect as the Orthrus, during my attempt at killing the first my Shardcannons where all destroyed by the "I'll burn ye guardian tech to kingdom come" aura.

While I am writting this I am sitting in the hangar of "Tomefeyevich's Inheritance"
My headphones are being tortured by constant carpet bombing by organic thargoid missles, my contact tab is filled by these.

I'll just wait here until mankinds answer to the Titans drops out of supercruise and annihilates these friendly looking wasps.

 

[Chaparral]

Is this FDEVs way of getting players to sniff the backside of the new Orthrus interceptors in alert systems, and turn of the fun at surface installations?

 

[BDelacroix]

Update 15 Recap

Greetings Commanders. It's only Thursday - we can hardly believe it. It's been another 'Big Update Week' and the energy from this one has been no less than the previous - all for their own rights and reasons of course! That's what makes this Galaxy so unique. So with that, here's a little...

forums.frontier.co.uk

Yes, still I wonder. Is this saying all is "working as intended". Is it just talking about the fact that they don't fixate on the ground like zombies, which seems reasonable. Does it mean that AND the majorly increased damage.

 

[Rogue 23SOC]

I just jumped into a planet side cz which I could usually clear upto the 2 hydra solo. But tonight not a single npc pilot in the sky, and I couldn't even get 2 hearts on a cyclops before the 8 scouts chasing just nailed me with 8 caustic missiles at once. And another 8 before I could land to r&r, and of course, say it together guys, a trip to the rebuy screen followed!
Well I guess its back to trucking and mining then, fdev clearly don't want us fighting thargoids anymore.

 

[William J Smith]

Just tried my fist CZ sine the update
I found the extra keen scouts quite fun and refreshing after having them line up at the surface base and wait to be shot(also a pain in the rear too)
But then I run a 6 plasma charger corvette...... one shot and the scout is gone.
more annoying was landing for a reload/repair while shooting the hydras... had 2 cyclops on launch decide to to tear my ship a new heat sink port
Its definetly more hairy out there now folks...

Bill

<now about those power restart missions and howto avoid having your aspX getting shot full of holes too...

 

[Sysmon]

While I would note that a Clipper can take zero damage from Scout interdictions very easily by boosting with a bit of upward or downward thrust and rolling slowly to make a slight spiral, definitely let that not disrupt the Aegis paint test!

Basking!

S

 

[Aleks Zuno]

Following up on that spiral suggestion, having tried the Clipper again in update 15—indeed some of that Scout damage now does hit. Many of those shots still miss with a spiral, and I can see something like five times the number of shots flying past me than prior to the update, but there were so many that it still took 10% away from 3000 armour. In a Cutter with class 8 Prismatic shield and grade 5 Reinforced high-capacity, five Boosters all with grade 5 Heavy duty super capacitors and four to SYS, one Scout interdiction takes around 4% shield, which is a lot.

I can understand doing something to Scouts so that fewer Commanders choose to ignore them, though having them shoot that quickly is sure to cause Commanders to abandon it entirely!

 

[BDelacroix]

Following up on that spiral suggestion, having tried the Clipper again in update 15—indeed some of that Scout damage now does hit. Many of those shots still miss with a spiral, and I can see something like five times the number of shots flying past me than prior to the update, but there were so many that it still took 10% away from 3000 armour. In a Cutter with class 8 Prismatic shield and grade 5 Reinforced high-capacity, five Boosters all with grade 5 Heavy duty super capacitors and four to SYS, one Scout interdiction takes around 4% shield, which is a lot.

I can understand doing something to Scouts so that fewer Commanders choose to ignore them, though having them shoot that quickly is sure to cause Commanders to abandon it entirely!

Sadly, it already has among my group of peers. At least for the time being. As for me, I'd rather know if its indeed intentional so I can plan accordingly.

 

[Purged]

I also think they're faster too. My Dolphin hit's around 580 m's I lost it 4 times yesterday. I killed 4 Orthrus as well and they didn't register either. I got paid though

 

[shockbait]

Just tried my fist CZ sine the update
I found the extra keen scouts quite fun and refreshing after having them line up at the surface base and wait to be shot(also a pain in the rear too)
But then I run a 6 plasma charger corvette...... one shot and the scout is gone.
more annoying was landing for a reload/repair while shooting the hydras... had 2 cyclops on launch decide to to tear my ship a new heat sink port
Its definetly more hairy out there now folks...

Bill

<now about those power restart missions and howto avoid having your aspX getting shot full of holes too...

How much hull does your Corvette have?
My 3,700 hull Krait MkII got melted like butter yesterday. Burned through 12 scouts before having to land and repair, killing them wasn't any harder or more challenging, the only difference was being at 22% hull after the first wave, as opposed to 92%+ as all previous AXCZ experience.
I didn't survive the second sortie, melted by scouts before I could even engage a cyclops, and then gave up and went back to collecting materials to breach the maelstrom, as I noticed I already had 20+ Propulsion Elements, and eating another rebuy to terminator scouts(who I might add were spawning in with berserk and regen pre-activated) didn't sound fun.

 

[RaketeMike]

Sadly, it already has among my group of peers. At least for the time being. As for me, I'd rather know if its indeed intentional so I can plan accordingly.

I think so too! And if it is intentional, they should buff the scout combat bonds accordingly, too. As of now, this is no more a balanced risk/payout ratio, an adapted payout should be in the range of 0.25-0.5 mil per berserked scout.

 

[Cunning Plan]

Further to my earlier post I’ve had a couple of days now in a couple of ground CZ’s to try and work out what’s happening with the buffs. I confess to being not much wiser apart from having the perception of inconsistences between CZ’s.

After the update and before the server tick I was at Col 285 Sector UD-G b12-2. After the initial mauling by scouts and a couple of rebuys I thought I’d started to get a tactical grip on the situation almost to the point of normal service. I began thinking that FD might have made some minor adjustments.

After the tick I moved to Tomefeyevich's Inheritance in Hyades Sector AV-O b6-5. Frantic carnage is the phrase that springs to mind! It was hard to shoot anything else but scouts in an effort to supress the damage being caused. This, combined with being attacked everything else Thargoid, no heads up for energy surges and having shards repeatedly disabled had me logging out and doing other things. The shear attrition did feel very excessive.

I’ll reserve judgement for the moment and have another try today. I’m not a natural at combat so it could be my own tactical ineptness that’s the problem. However a nice hazres is starting to look like an attractive proposition for some peace and quiet!

 

[St0rmFury]

I recall a Arf's quote (could also be a another guest dev) in one of the previous frameshift lives, where he mentioned that the Thargoids will come up with new strategies to counter the humans' resistance.

Now I don't think perma-enraged scouts was what he had in mind, but the hunter/glaive emitting an anti-guardian field sounds like one of those strategies, forcing players to bring a mix of guardian and AX weapons which was made easier with the weapon stabilisers.

Snippet from Burr Pit's video: