We are winning, the tide has turned HIP 23716

[Disemboweled Ego]

So how do you get to a point where that might be a reasonable possibility when at no point do the players visibly lose. Just translating the tactical results faithfully to the strategic layer always ends up in a week 1 total defeat for the Thargoids (or month 1, anyway)

The game mechanic that invokes that is some sort of "see how long you can survive/defend the objective" last stand horde mode, but that doesn't work well in Elite (installation scenarios) and with the specific kind of fighting interceptors take to bring down. It also wouldn't lend itself to making the thargoid combat more accessible so it's understandable why they couldn't do that.

There are also threat mechanics in strategy games where you need to fight back in moderation without ing off the Omnipotent Enemy too much or they'll crush you (AI War, Terra Invicta), but those also don't work in a MMO environment where letting the players do "the wrong thing" could result in incredible toxicity.

The balance needs to be incredibly precise if the only lever they can tweak is how much player contributions push the bar across the board.

If the simulation was/is more complex behind the scenes then it should let imbalances develop along some sort of front line and open up the possiblity of strategies emerging.

 

[William J Smith]

Wakata is still operational, there is fuel, repairs and ammo. No internal heat although there is a lot of damage to the station itself. There is an active anti-gank force present and of course a whole lot of evacuation, combat and supply ships. All in all a very lively place. Expect a lot of Thargoid radio interference (aka Buggy as hell)

Well the Oasis has been reduced down to wounded evac missions only..... and just as many bugs objecting to evac missions....

Still fun getting in and out without having your butt shot off...

Bill

<<<<current status: not sleeping well due to too many 'incoming missile' alerts.... twitch twitch

 

[molgrips]

Have we learned anything during last week's battle? I have. I've learned how to handle Cyclops myself, which I couldn't do before. I've tried a few ships and loadouts, done some research and I've got more to try, in the name of killing interceptors as fast as possible.

We just need to learn the new mechanics. Will the Thargoid effort suffer if they lose? Can we disrupt a supply chain with the right strike?

 

[Oaktree]

Despite agreeing with Obsidian Ant and several other members of the community, that erasing player progress is a poor decision, the reset may not be as bad as I thought initially.
FD tweaked the numbers and with probably less players, HIP 23716 is almost won. And with almost the same tools that we started the conflict with!
There's a lot of new stuff coming, that we're going to get our hands on and a lot of things we dont know yet. Maybe beating the Maelstrom will weaken the Thargoids in the defending systems, making the progress bar go faster. Who knows?

The only bad thing, will be for smaller groups of players trying to defend their home system, that if the progress bar didnt reset, maybe they had a chance in 3 or 4 weeks to clean their system. As things are now, they'll have to wait for bigger player groups to focus on their system, but that may take months, even years, who knows how long this war will last in the game?

 

[Jabo Zerstorer]

Let me see if I understand the current situation please...

The thread title says "We are winning, the tide has turned HIP 23716" - yet as far as I can see we have lost to Tharg control more than 100 systems, there are over 40 systems in conflict and that is with 5 maelstroms. There are three more maelstroms to manifest so more losses / invasions to come this week.

The humans have managed to recover how many systems? What, none?

So how exactly are "we winning"?

You're not taking account of the game mechanics. No more Systems will become Thargoid for a few weeks yet, except for those new one's that wll become Thargoid controlled when the remaining 3 Maelstroms arrive.

 

[Bigmaec]

You're not taking account of the game mechanics. No more Systems will become Thargoid for a few weeks yet, except for those new one's that wll become Thargoid controlled when the remaining 3 Maelstroms arrive.

Where do you get that?
The way I see it is the alert systems become invasions and the Thargoids will expand.
So we won one system, and will lose dozens
Or do I miss something here?

 

[Jabo Zerstorer]

Where do you get that?
The way I see it is the alert systems become invasions and the Thargoids will expand.
So we won one system, and will lose dozens
Or do I miss something here?

Aren't the ticks to lose those systems weekly? I've not had a proper look but I thought most were at least another 2 weeks away until invasion?

 

[Codger]

who knows how long this war will last in the game?

Oh I think we know.

This is the new normal. The Thargoid War has been installed as a permanent feature of the game.

It's the next part of the story of the galaxy.

 

[Bigmaec]

Aren't the ticks to lose those systems weekly? I've not had a proper look but I thought most were at least another 2 weeks away until invasion?

Ok, we lose the systems next week then. Not a big difference

 

[deleteduser]

.

 

[Bigmaec]

Not all systems have the same number of ticks to go from alert to control.

I suspect there will be a largish number of very low pop systems doing the whole shebang in 1 tick.

View attachment 337323View attachment 337324

Am I blind or senile or did I just learn the left thargoid status button doesn't include the system name while the right one does (see my post)?
Who thought that would make sense?

 

[Fnord Velkor]

Having become bored with hauling stuff (in a very haphazard way) I decided to bite the bullet (sorry) and brought an alt account out of hibernation and built an AX scout killer. My very first thargoid combat I should add. I must say I didn't enjoy sitting in the dark waiting for the power to come back on wondering if the rebuy screen would appear. I think that my efforts were not at all effective as according to EDSM only my Krait and a lone Python visited in the last day (and only 11 in a week).

Maybe the real reason F D have done the invasion in this way is actually to encourage the players to work together more (make it more MMO?), you know, one player's efforts are paltry so have to combine efforts one way or another. Makes my "lone agent" style look very weak.

 

[Bigmaec]

Having become bored with hauling stuff (in a very haphazard way) I decided to bite the bullet (sorry) and brought an alt account out of hibernation and built an AX scout killer. My very first thargoid combat I should add. I must say I didn't enjoy sitting in the dark waiting for the power to come back on wondering if the rebuy screen would appear. I think that my efforts were not at all effective as according to EDSM only my Krait and a lone Python visited in the last day (and only 11 in a week).

Maybe the real reason F D have done the invasion in this way is actually to encourage the players to work together more (make it more MMO?), you know, one player's efforts are paltry so have to combine efforts one way or another. Makes my "lone agent" style look very weak.

Every time I think about cooperation in this war I sooner or later land at a rescue ship and start to hate people anew.
Working together does not work well with 1 L-pad rescue ships... urge to gank intensifies

 

[He$$eeTant]

Having become bored with hauling stuff (in a very haphazard way) I decided to bite the bullet (sorry) and brought an alt account out of hibernation and built an AX scout killer. My very first thargoid combat I should add. I must say I didn't enjoy sitting in the dark waiting for the power to come back on wondering if the rebuy screen would appear. I think that my efforts were not at all effective as according to EDSM only my Krait and a lone Python visited in the last day (and only 11 in a week).

Maybe the real reason F D have done the invasion in this way is actually to encourage the players to work together more (make it more MMO?), you know, one player's efforts are paltry so have to combine efforts one way or another. Makes my "lone agent" style look very weak.

Nice one, thank you for taking part.

Indeed the purpose of this thread and others that will follow is to provide casual players and those who frequent this forum a target system that needs their help. This provides not only a sense of achievement but also there are many many experienced cmdrs in this system that can protect and teach others about Thargoids.

 

[HRDiagram]

Every time I think about cooperation in this war I sooner or later land at a rescue ship and start to hate people anew.
Working together does not work well with 1 L-pad rescue ships... urge to gank intensifies

The solution will be docking to rescue Panther Clippers orbiting the megaships!

 

[Bigmaec]

The solution will be docking to rescue Panther Clippers orbiting the megaships!

I like the way you think

 

[CMDR Rabbit]

Every time I think about cooperation in this war I sooner or later land at a rescue ship and start to hate people anew.
Working together does not work well with 1 L-pad rescue ships... urge to gank intensifies

Was at the Tarach Tor rescue ship the other day and the chat looked like this:

CMDR sumthin : Hey, dude in the cutter, can you hurry up and clear the pad?
CMDR dude in the cutter: Oh crap! I'm in open? I've been sitting here afk for like 2 hours.

 

[Jabo Zerstorer]

Not all systems have the same number of ticks to go from alert to control.

I suspect there will be a largish number of very low pop systems doing the whole shebang in 1 tick.

View attachment 337323View attachment 337324

I presume the reason the two HIPs were chosen was because of they had the shortest time to Infestation State?

So no Systems will flip to Infestation until next week (unless we defend said Stations in that time).

There may come a time soon when we do have to sacrifice Systems but I guess most of those will be unpopulated one's.

 

[deleteduser]

.

 

[deleteduser]

.