So we now know with certainty that 2.4 is Thargoids, and from what Ed said in the livestream they will be hostile, and we will be fighting them:
This statement by Ed in Tuesday’s stream (35 minutes in) bothered me, as he makes it sound like we all should be looking forward to shooting at Thargoids. But not everyone plays Elite to shoot at things! There are three main ranks in the game: Combat, Trading, and Exploring. Elite Dangerous has a wide variety of players, and while some do indeed love combat, a great many of the players want nothing or very little to do with it. I’m sure that a lot of them, judging by the tone of discussions since yesterday, are less than excited at the prospects of yet another combat focused headline feature update.
So I have been wondering today how a Thargoid war could provide more than just combat content to the game? Is there a way to give traders and explorers and miners something to do too? Then I read this post from CMDR Kmwmtd in another thread:
This is a fantastic idea! Upgrade the BGS to something like a military focused Power Play type of engine, where systems can have new status to them like different levels of “Thargoid invasion”, destabilizing system economies and such. Each week the galaxy map would be updated by the BGS 2.4 to show systems under attack, much like a Galactic Risk game, similar to the Power Play map but with aliens vs humans this time.
Being in this state would drain resources from the system for constantly fending off the Thargoids, resulting in compromised system defenses, economic crashes, famine, etc. This would then generate resupply missions where traders could run supplies to the Thargoid afflicted systems, hauling things like food and weapons and such. Ores and minerals would also be in huge demand to rebuild in the compromised systems, so very lucrative mining missions would fill the mission boards to give miners exceptional places to sell their cargo. Completing these missions would help bolster the system status, even possibly pushing the Thargoids out in the following week. This gives Traders and Miners an important role in the Thargoid war: Resupply.
Passenger ships could pick up missions to run troops to the invaded systems to help the cause, earning very high military payouts. So Passenger ships now have a role too: Troop transport.
Explorers could be tasked with Recon missions out in space, looking for Thargoid hives and rally points, even searching for many dozens of new barnacle sites which the Thargoids would be using to refuel and such. These hives and rally points could be procedurally generated each week by the BGS 2.4, and successful recon missions would result in military strike missions the following week where combat pilots could fly out to assault Thargoid bases and forces. So Explorers have an important role now for the war effort: Recon.
And of course the combat pilots have their role in the war: blasting Thargoids. Taking military missions to kill aliens in compromised systems, assault hives previously reconned by explorers, attacking barnacle sites on planet surfaces, etc.
A 2.4 update like this, where all Elite players, even the non-combat players, have a stake in the game and a role to play to help the war effort, well damn I would love to see something as all encompassing like that. Who knows, maybe this is exactly what we ARE getting with 2.4?
Ed Lewis said:You are going to be fighting Thargoids, now if you don't think that's exciting then....I'm not sure, what is.
This statement by Ed in Tuesday’s stream (35 minutes in) bothered me, as he makes it sound like we all should be looking forward to shooting at Thargoids. But not everyone plays Elite to shoot at things! There are three main ranks in the game: Combat, Trading, and Exploring. Elite Dangerous has a wide variety of players, and while some do indeed love combat, a great many of the players want nothing or very little to do with it. I’m sure that a lot of them, judging by the tone of discussions since yesterday, are less than excited at the prospects of yet another combat focused headline feature update.
So I have been wondering today how a Thargoid war could provide more than just combat content to the game? Is there a way to give traders and explorers and miners something to do too? Then I read this post from CMDR Kmwmtd in another thread:
I'm hoping that the BGS will be reworked/extended into a war-based model, so that instead of systems being contested by factions, they will be contested by humans and Thargoids. The extent to which either side influences a system determines how likely you are to encounter Thargoid threats there. This influence would be military - blowing up enemy ships or bases - or logistic - completing missions for the various navies or supplying goods which are in short supply. The more of those things we do, the stronger our influence. This influence would be shown on the galaxy map (shades of green for us, red for them, for example) so we can easily see the battle-lines, and where our help - military or logistic - is needed. Those who want pew pew pew can patrol the front line; those who want some risk can do supply runs to the front line; those wanting a quiet life can operate further back. Certain commodities needed for the war effort can be manufactured (read: appear from thin air), mined or collected from planet surfaces deep in safe territory, and need to be traded from safe to relatively safe to dangerous systems, forming supply lines.
Not quite sure how exploration would fit, but then exploration has always been its own thing really as you tend to be too far away for much interaction. However, maybe spying on enemy movements, mapping the extent of their influence, or searching for rarer but more useful (read: influential) materials and bringing them to deep space supply hubs where they can be taken back to the bubble and eventually the front line.
Something like that would hopefully have some appeal for everyone.
This is a fantastic idea! Upgrade the BGS to something like a military focused Power Play type of engine, where systems can have new status to them like different levels of “Thargoid invasion”, destabilizing system economies and such. Each week the galaxy map would be updated by the BGS 2.4 to show systems under attack, much like a Galactic Risk game, similar to the Power Play map but with aliens vs humans this time.
Being in this state would drain resources from the system for constantly fending off the Thargoids, resulting in compromised system defenses, economic crashes, famine, etc. This would then generate resupply missions where traders could run supplies to the Thargoid afflicted systems, hauling things like food and weapons and such. Ores and minerals would also be in huge demand to rebuild in the compromised systems, so very lucrative mining missions would fill the mission boards to give miners exceptional places to sell their cargo. Completing these missions would help bolster the system status, even possibly pushing the Thargoids out in the following week. This gives Traders and Miners an important role in the Thargoid war: Resupply.
Passenger ships could pick up missions to run troops to the invaded systems to help the cause, earning very high military payouts. So Passenger ships now have a role too: Troop transport.
Explorers could be tasked with Recon missions out in space, looking for Thargoid hives and rally points, even searching for many dozens of new barnacle sites which the Thargoids would be using to refuel and such. These hives and rally points could be procedurally generated each week by the BGS 2.4, and successful recon missions would result in military strike missions the following week where combat pilots could fly out to assault Thargoid bases and forces. So Explorers have an important role now for the war effort: Recon.
And of course the combat pilots have their role in the war: blasting Thargoids. Taking military missions to kill aliens in compromised systems, assault hives previously reconned by explorers, attacking barnacle sites on planet surfaces, etc.
A 2.4 update like this, where all Elite players, even the non-combat players, have a stake in the game and a role to play to help the war effort, well damn I would love to see something as all encompassing like that. Who knows, maybe this is exactly what we ARE getting with 2.4?