Over time I noticed two bugs that were fixed in the meantime. One where feeding meta-alloys to a Thargoid would make them appear green on the radar for a day after the feed (Screenshot) and another where Xeno-hunters would receive reputation decrease messages from the "Thargoid" faction. (Forum post) This means to me that there is a hidden reputation system for Thargoids and it can be influenced positively.
Along with the above, I wanted to share with you how, in my mind, people could have positive Thargoid interactions:
It would seem that the direction Frontier Developments wants to take the game Elite Dangerous is Player vs Thargoid combat. But what if players could interact with Thargoids peacefully? Of course as many people know, if you feed a Thargoid some Meta-alloys it will leave you alone and collect them. If you drop a lot of them, she calls reinforcements to collect everything. But that's about it. What if this action, of giving to/feeding the Thargoids, could directly affect the outcome of the encounter on a larger scale, depending on the circumstance in which the player encountered the Thargoid?
For example, let's look at how that could affect the Incursion state in the BGS. Normally, in a system in a state of incursion, there are warzones with actively aggressive Scouts or Interceptors. Now let's say that I drop into such a danger zone and a group of Scouts immediately attacks me. Here's how I would imagine an ideal peaceful encounter with them. I drop in. I immediately see "red" scouts/interceptor(s) on the radar. But they don't attack me instantly. Instead, they prepare an attack formation. This gives me time to either deploy hardpoints or start dropping Meta Alloys. In the comms panel, I see the following task, akin to a war zone: "Assist with the Thargoid conflict: 0/4" This is intentionally vague. If I drop at least 4 MA, the aggressive state will be dropped and:
-the scouts will call for help with scooping and slowly fly in circles around the player(s) until help arrives to collect the cargo, moment in which the scouts leave the instance;
-the interceptors will collect the MA themselves or call for help if it's too much; After the aggressive state has ceased, the player will be told that their reputation with the Thargoids has increased.
Of course, after a while, future Thargoids will appear green on the radar and no longer be aggressive on sight.
Also, if enough players feed the Thargoids, the incursion state will pass peacefully, with the only leftovers being peaceful Thargoid wings flying through the system in convoy signal sources and/or flying around damaged stations and occasionally scanning it, signifying its effort to help repair it and/or establishing Thargoid structures in the system. Of course, the incursion can be ended if most players choose to kill the Thargoids. If players both kill a lot of Thargoids and feed them, the conflict will continue, but the Thargoids will become stronger/boosted. The progress towards ending incursion can be gauged using a two-directional bar, with the middle being the starting state and the ends of the bar being "violent resolution" and "peaceful resolution". If a lot of systems have defeated Thargoids peacefully, in other incursion systems, different, "red" Thargoids may be found fighting allied Thargoids. The allied Thargoids will appear as "Neo-Oresrian Interceptors/Scouts." Thanks for taking the time to read through this textwall. Constructive criticism and suggestions welcome.
Along with the above, I wanted to share with you how, in my mind, people could have positive Thargoid interactions:
It would seem that the direction Frontier Developments wants to take the game Elite Dangerous is Player vs Thargoid combat. But what if players could interact with Thargoids peacefully? Of course as many people know, if you feed a Thargoid some Meta-alloys it will leave you alone and collect them. If you drop a lot of them, she calls reinforcements to collect everything. But that's about it. What if this action, of giving to/feeding the Thargoids, could directly affect the outcome of the encounter on a larger scale, depending on the circumstance in which the player encountered the Thargoid?
For example, let's look at how that could affect the Incursion state in the BGS. Normally, in a system in a state of incursion, there are warzones with actively aggressive Scouts or Interceptors. Now let's say that I drop into such a danger zone and a group of Scouts immediately attacks me. Here's how I would imagine an ideal peaceful encounter with them. I drop in. I immediately see "red" scouts/interceptor(s) on the radar. But they don't attack me instantly. Instead, they prepare an attack formation. This gives me time to either deploy hardpoints or start dropping Meta Alloys. In the comms panel, I see the following task, akin to a war zone: "Assist with the Thargoid conflict: 0/4" This is intentionally vague. If I drop at least 4 MA, the aggressive state will be dropped and:
-the scouts will call for help with scooping and slowly fly in circles around the player(s) until help arrives to collect the cargo, moment in which the scouts leave the instance;
-the interceptors will collect the MA themselves or call for help if it's too much; After the aggressive state has ceased, the player will be told that their reputation with the Thargoids has increased.
Of course, after a while, future Thargoids will appear green on the radar and no longer be aggressive on sight.
Also, if enough players feed the Thargoids, the incursion state will pass peacefully, with the only leftovers being peaceful Thargoid wings flying through the system in convoy signal sources and/or flying around damaged stations and occasionally scanning it, signifying its effort to help repair it and/or establishing Thargoid structures in the system. Of course, the incursion can be ended if most players choose to kill the Thargoids. If players both kill a lot of Thargoids and feed them, the conflict will continue, but the Thargoids will become stronger/boosted. The progress towards ending incursion can be gauged using a two-directional bar, with the middle being the starting state and the ends of the bar being "violent resolution" and "peaceful resolution". If a lot of systems have defeated Thargoids peacefully, in other incursion systems, different, "red" Thargoids may be found fighting allied Thargoids. The allied Thargoids will appear as "Neo-Oresrian Interceptors/Scouts." Thanks for taking the time to read through this textwall. Constructive criticism and suggestions welcome.
