Very weird Thargoid interceptor fight

[Tividar]

Had a weird Thargoid fight tonight. Winged up with m’daughter. She dropped into a threat 5 and scanned the cyclops. She did not agro the ‘goid, and did not trigger the early swarm release. I dropped in a little late so she fired on it as it was moving to open its witchspace portal. I entered the instance shortly after her first hit and started shooting with a LR thermal vent laser ASAP. The cyclops finished opening its portal, but then went catatonic. It went through all the regular stages except that it did not move to engage or fire any weaponry. No bursts, no lightning, no missile, no swarm, no neutralizer. The witchspace portal stayed throughout the fight and beyond. Trying to approach the portal caused my ship to be physically repelled (no damage), and the portal’s presence warped the cockpit view.

Any thoughts?

We’re going to try and reproduce the event tomorrow night and maybe get some video.

 

[CMDR X]

Strange things are happening indeed. I kind of hope this, and my strange encounter, is content and not just bugs.
Like something really big and menacing is monkeying with the continuum or whatever.

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

Sounds like the interceptor bugged out when you fired upon it. The normal behaviour is that you cannot stop it from leaving once it starts doing so, but they do bug out sometimes.

 

[Pigletslastand]

It's a known bug, doesn't happen all the time but my first interceptor kill was a cheesy affair like this where it just sat there and took it without firing back.

(I did go back and solo one properly after)

 

[Sensei Jacksama]

Ive seen it happen before. Took some great screenshots before I killed it.

 

[AceMcKool]

She dropped into a threat 5 and scanned the cyclops. She did not agro the ‘goid, and did not trigger the early swarm release.

Wait, what?

[TOTAL AX NOOB QUESTION ALERT]

You can drop into a NHSS and scan thargoids without getting shot at first sight? I though they were immediately hostile.

Again, asking from a total AX noob perspective here. I've never even tried to kill an interceptor.

 

[nosleepdemon]

Strange things are happening indeed. I kind of hope this, and my strange encounter, is content and not just bugs.
Like something really big and menacing is monkeying with the continuum or whatever.

Yeeeah the only monkeying around that's happening is within FD's code base.

 

[photomankc]

We killed a Medusa like that once in horizons. It just gave up living in the middle of the fight and never fought back again.

 

[Tividar]

Wait, what?

[TOTAL AX NOOB QUESTION ALERT]

You can drop into a NHSS and scan thargoids without getting shot at first sight? I though they were immediately hostile.

Again, asking from a total AX noob perspective here. I've never even tried to kill an interceptor.

Yes. Close to 500m and scan. If you get too close they release a swarm, but stay neutral. Continue to get closer and eventually they agro.

 

[Tividar]

Strange things are happening indeed. I kind of hope this, and my strange encounter, is content and not just bugs.
Like something really big and menacing is monkeying with the continuum or whatever.

Yeeeah the only monkeying around that's happening is within FD's code base.

Over the last few days of Thargoid hunting I’ve experienced some random collisions with invisible objects during the fights. I haven’t been able to reproduce any of it though. Feels pretty random. I’m inclined to agree with nosleepdemon.

 

[Bottom Hat]

Are they some odyssey rocks that have floated a bit too far off the surface, that you are hitting?

 

[alexzk]

Any thoughts?

In Horizons. In pirate level 6-7. If you wait while pirate will start FSD charge, then open fire, he will interrupt charge, will be flying around but never return fire back and keep weapons docked (square on radar).
Guess something similar happened to thargoid.

Bugged interrupted fly-out for mobs. Long one bug, saw that in December.

 

[Tividar]

Are they some odyssey rocks that have floated a bit too far off the surface, that you are hitting?

Gawd I hope not... The possibility that Odyssey assets are jumping ship and looking for greener pastures is unsettling.

 

[Bottom Hat]

Gawd I hope not... The possibility that Odyssey assets are jumping ship and looking for greener pastures is unsettling.

I thoroughly agree with you on this!

 

[dm06]

In Horizons. In pirate level 6-7. If you wait while pirate will start FSD charge, then open fire, he will interrupt charge, will be flying around but never return fire back and keep weapons docked (square on radar).
Guess something similar happened to thargoid.

Bugged interrupted fly-out for mobs. Long one bug, saw that in December.

Not only in pirate level 6-7.
Observed this in resource sites also. And in mission signal sources for massacre pirates missions.

 

[Northpin]

Wait, what?

[TOTAL AX NOOB QUESTION ALERT]

You can drop into a NHSS and scan thargoids without getting shot at first sight? I though they were immediately hostile.

Again, asking from a total AX noob perspective here. I've never even tried to kill an interceptor.

Only Scouts are agressive.
Interceptors will scan you and if you dont carry stuff they're interested in, they will leave you be

The exception are the instances where you have Interceptors AND Scouts. In this case, everyone will agro you

 

[Ted Striker]

Over the last few days of Thargoid hunting I’ve experienced some random collisions with invisible objects during the fights. I haven’t been able to reproduce any of it though. Feels pretty random. I’m inclined to agree with nosleepdemon.

Someone the other day reported having his hull smashed down to 1% from what looks like hitting an invisible barrier in space, taking off from a planet in solo mode.

So who knows what is going on?

 

[Red Anders]

We killed a Medusa like that once in horizons. It just gave up living in the middle of the fight and never fought back again.

I think anybody who visits the forum regularly can relate to this

 

[Tividar]

It's a known bug, doesn't happen all the time but my first interceptor kill was a cheesy affair like this where it just sat there and took it without firing back.

(I did go back and solo one properly after)

Sounds like the interceptor bugged out when you fired upon it. The normal behaviour is that you cannot stop it from leaving once it starts doing so, but they do bug out sometimes.

In Horizons. In pirate level 6-7. If you wait while pirate will start FSD charge, then open fire, he will interrupt charge, will be flying around but never return fire back and keep weapons docked (square on radar).
Guess something similar happened to thargoid.

Bugged interrupted fly-out for mobs. Long one bug, saw that in December.

So we were able to pretty reliably reproduce it.
Step #1 Drop into instance. Do what you like (scan, grab cargo, etc.) just don't agro the Cyclopes (try to avoid triggering a swarm launch).
Step #2 Wait until the Cyclopes finishes scanning/abducting pilots.
Step #3 When the Cyclopes turns to leave and begins to accelerate away, engage it.

From this point it looks like the Thargoid oscillates between two basic scripts: The "I'm leaving this instance" script (A), and the "I've just had one of my hearts exploded" script (B). If you've engaged the Cyclopes after script A starts and you manage to exert and kill the heart, it switches to script B and stops trying to leave the instance for as long as the Thargoid remains on script B. While following script B, the Cyclops follows a routine similar to what it would do in a normal fight after losing a heart: flashing colors, a pause in action and raising a shield. In half of the recreations, the Cyclops launched swarms, but they behaved erratically (clustering around the Thargoid, firing ineffectually). In no recreation of the event did the Thargoid use special abilities or fire cannons. If the Thargoid was left alone long enough if resumed script A.

As long as we kept up pressure on the 'goid, knocking the shield, exerting the heart and then destroying the heart in a timely fashion the Cyclops just floated there and took it.

One other thing we noted is sometimes during the initial escape attempt after exerting the first heart, the Thargoid would start to pinwheel. While the rotating heart was certainly harder to hit, it was still doable.