And as a bonus - they're all in missile formation because they flew over your NPC friends
Weapons vs. Thargoids
- Thread starter Bortas
- Start date
To be fair I don’t think a single player thought it was going to get rid of the Thargoids. On the contrary they were counting on the exact opposite. At least something is happening now, the game has been stagnant for far too long.
Proof that most players don't function well in a pure sandbox. They need guidance. And it works, since U14 50% more players have been on daily. Former ED pilots that have been in Star Citizen for the last few years are unmothballing their ships. Let's see if that lasts. And now I need large gauss and huge shard cannons please.
The main issue I see with turreted guardian weapons is that they can't target the hearts unless you scan the goid first. Turrets are great for scouts, but I'd rather snipe the hearts with fixed gun.
Frontier need to be very clear if it's possible to participate without grinding or hunting down AX weapons.
I love my ED ship, but I had the impression this whole thing is not, no way, for players like me who are not hyper optimized for combat. I wasn't even going to bother looking at the Thargoid stuff figuring it's just going to be instadeath.
True, but Shard Cannons have the benefit of having a wide enough spread to cover the entire interceptor. They're more than capable of killing hearts entirely by chance.
I went out there today in my Mamba, which is set up for normal NPC combat, and has no AX weapons. I was able to kill a couple of Scouts that were attacking an outpost, and get some combat bonds from it. Anything bigger than that was out of the question. In the end, I was not prepared to deal with Caustic missiles, and had to retreat after a very short time. (Yes I know about overheating your ship).
So I think it can be done without an AX specialized ship, but...it's gonna be less than satisfactory. I felt vastly underpowered.
Slap some AX Missiles in there and you'll do a LOT better. Scouts have 66% resistances to human weapons. That means an overcharged huge multicannon will be doing about 10 DPS; a medium AX missile rack, by contrast, will be doing something like 23 DPS to that same scout.
Initially I liked the idea of having special weapons to take out the aliens. Main reason was because they were confined to a certain part of the galaxy. It felt like playing one of those fantasy MMOs where you needed special weapons to run a dungeon. You could easily ignore this aspect of the gameplay and happily carry on with your normal equipment.
Then Fedv made the Goids invade the bubble. You could still pretty much ignore the AX CZs and carry on. But by this time I was not really playing the game. And I was not interested in doing this AX stuff. And I personally don’t think that many players were actually interested in this, cause of the amount of preparation that needed to be done before you could get involved.
Now it seems you can’t ignore this AX stuff, have to go out and grind AX and Guardian weapons, build a hull tank with corrosion resistance, lug around a decontamination limpet and give up one of you utility slots for a scanner that allows you to target the Goids properly.
The new Goid gameplay would probably be much more appealing to players like me if we didn’t have to use AX specific ships to get involved. And also if that corrosive effect of the Goids had a time out, instead of either us players having to damage our own ships or lugging around a decontamination limpet.
Full disclosure: I have a fully outfitted AX ship with all the bells and whistles.
Then Fedv made the Goids invade the bubble. You could still pretty much ignore the AX CZs and carry on. But by this time I was not really playing the game. And I was not interested in doing this AX stuff. And I personally don’t think that many players were actually interested in this, cause of the amount of preparation that needed to be done before you could get involved.
Now it seems you can’t ignore this AX stuff, have to go out and grind AX and Guardian weapons, build a hull tank with corrosion resistance, lug around a decontamination limpet and give up one of you utility slots for a scanner that allows you to target the Goids properly.
The new Goid gameplay would probably be much more appealing to players like me if we didn’t have to use AX specific ships to get involved. And also if that corrosive effect of the Goids had a time out, instead of either us players having to damage our own ships or lugging around a decontamination limpet.
Full disclosure: I have a fully outfitted AX ship with all the bells and whistles.
I'm finding it impossible to engage with this new thargoid nonsense. Have all guardian kit on my ship, everything is fully engineered, all AX weapons, guardian fighter with gauss cannon and decontamination limpets.
Fly to system that has thargoid issues, hull starts melting as soon as I arrive in the system. No idea why.
Modules start to fail, first one to go is the decon limpets.
Then thargoids attack. Long story short I get to a nearby system with 8% remaining hull, having never fired a single shot.
I'm in an anaconda that's been to colonia and back, I have every toy the game can afford, except caustic shielded hull because it's useless against human pirates.
With this level of tech I should at least be able to participate in the thargoid nonsense, surely?
Can't help but think this content was not playtested at all.
Fly to system that has thargoid issues, hull starts melting as soon as I arrive in the system. No idea why.
Modules start to fail, first one to go is the decon limpets.
Then thargoids attack. Long story short I get to a nearby system with 8% remaining hull, having never fired a single shot.
I'm in an anaconda that's been to colonia and back, I have every toy the game can afford, except caustic shielded hull because it's useless against human pirates.
With this level of tech I should at least be able to participate in the thargoid nonsense, surely?
Can't help but think this content was not playtested at all.
Don't go into the maelstrom systems, go to any of the infested systems around them (where the guardian tech melting fields are not active).
With all due respect, doesn't seem like you tested it much before jumping on here to complain either.
Fair perspective, but at the same time, I didn't magically gain full AX weapons. I've been grinding and trying to understand AX combat for many months without any success - my experience in AX combat is the same now as when I had fully engineered human weapon systems. "Meet thargoid, hit it a bit, run away in terror".
A full update and DLC themed around AX tempted me to believe that some thought and rebalancing might have been applied, but it seems the opposite is the case.
The phenomenon of guardian weapons degrading in certain systems is a separate issue from any rebalance of the weapons themselves. They are not cause and effect.
That's a good point, and I take the phenomena separately now you make it.
I'll try again a little further from the main thargoid incursions, that experience did give my confidence quite a knock.
I'll try again a little further from the main thargoid incursions, that experience did give my confidence quite a knock.
That did not go well. Intercepted in mid-jump by a single thargoid interceptor before even reaching a disputed system. Shields and hull stripped in seconds, ship destroyed.
Again, didn't get to fire a single shot. I think I'll give up on this and just play with pirates and combat instead.
Cannot remember the last time my ship was destroyed, over a year ago at least.
Again, didn't get to fire a single shot. I think I'll give up on this and just play with pirates and combat instead.
Cannot remember the last time my ship was destroyed, over a year ago at least.
Same happened to me when trying to enter a 'maelstrom system', i was okay when i went to a system where combat was occurring, i went to a low intensity conflict area and killed some 'low level' thargoids, before the ones with swarms came and i ran for it lol give a combat system a try as opposed to a system with a maelstrom, they seem to be really guarding those maelstroms
That's what I was looking for, a threat 4 skirmish with some scouts or something, not to be swatted like a fly before I've even finished the jump to a system.
The reason your hull starts melting as soon as you arrive in the system is because you foolishly ignored the most
important module, the Guardian Hull Reinforcement Pack!! (assuming you meant with "caustic shielded hull").
And forget your Anaconda for any serious AX participation. There are a half dozen ships that will do miles better.
Turreted Shards work with AI, but they only fire at 500 meters or closer.
I have guardian hull and module reinforcements fitted. I've just not used the Metal Alloy hull reinforcements as they only give 3% caustic protection and are useless when fighting humans. Instead I have fully engineered military grade composite.