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- Thread starter Tyres O'Flaherty
- Start date
I do see where you're coming from on this.Probably my biggest "complaint" about the Thargoids is how opaque they are to us. They might as well be rocks. I find it difficult to stir up any emotion or interest for them. I think they are about as boring as an enemy could be. We know nothing about their goals, their society, their origins, etc. We don't even know if they have a language.
Not that I'm actually complaining, of course. The story is what it is, and I know that Lord Braben wanted the aliens to be inscrutable and mysterious, and not something we would understand.
I just think that they succeeded a bit too well.
The Thargoids are inscrutable and mysterious, because they are boring as heck! I really don't care about them
For me, and I know I've banged on about this (endlessly sometimes!), it would create a better "feel" for the Thargoid Thing if we could fight them (or make peace with them?) on foot and see the overly aggressive star crumpets sans spaceship.
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In contrast I am of the opinion that we seem to be understanding the Thargoids far too well for a species so alien to us. We have after all more in common with those shrimps that live in the dead ocean around the thermal vents called black smokers than we do with Thargoids.Probably my biggest "complaint" about the Thargoids is how opaque they are to us. They might as well be rocks. I find it difficult to stir up any emotion or interest for them. I think they are about as boring as an enemy could be. We know nothing about their goals, their society, their origins, etc. We don't even know if they have a language.
Not that I'm actually complaining, of course. The story is what it is, and I know that Lord Braben wanted the aliens to be inscrutable and mysterious, and not something we would understand.
I just think that they succeeded a bit too well.
The Thargoids are inscrutable and mysterious, because they are boring as heck! I really don't care about them
They are supposed to be a hive mind if that means there is only ‘one’ Thargoid then it wouldn’t need a language, and all we have done is similar to what a barber or manicurist does to a human. If there are groups of hives then they may have a language, but we still might not have killed a single Thargoid mind.
Ah yes of course - silly me.
I forgot that in my previoius stint of playing in 2015 there were no Thargoids at all as you said. In fact, when I returned to the game last year after a seven year layoff, loads of new stuff had since been added - Thargoids, landing and disembarking on planets, disembarking in space stations, engineers, fleet carriers etc etc and quite a lot for me to learn. And I'm STILL trying to learn it!Anyway now that I'm back in the bubble I'm doing a variety of things. On-foot CZs, shooting Thargoid Scouts and just now I dug out my old T6 to do a bit of trading to try to get my rank up in that a bit (it's still only Merchant.) I jumped my carrier to Altair and picked up some rares - Altairian Skin.
Even though this system is in Boom though I could only get 7, but I'll hang around here for a while and do some CZs in nearby systems, then check the station again to hopefully get some more. A good thing about having a carrier with rares in the hold is you can do the 160-200 LY jump to sell them in one hop.
Found a - for me - really rare oxygen planet. Not only first foot, but also this codex entry: bacterium volu red.*
I know - it's grey, right?
I know - it's grey, right?
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This is the problem with the whole Thargoid thing. They are a game mechanic, not "living" characters in a story. I had a great time for several years learning how to create stories "properly", wrote and self-published a fantasy novel that has some great reviews but doesn't sell much. It's where Quain was invented. It was a fascinating experience that taught me things like, if the reader can't see the conspiracy / mystery, there is no conspiracy or mystery. The Thargoids are supposed to have goals and needs in the war. Some tiny thing that might give them character. Players can't see it. If it's in the game to find, it might as well be Raxxla - a mystery box with no known way to open it.Probably my biggest "complaint" about the Thargoids is how opaque they are to us. They might as well be rocks. I find it difficult to stir up any emotion or interest for them. I think they are about as boring as an enemy could be. We know nothing about their goals, their society, their origins, etc. We don't even know if they have a language.
Not that I'm actually complaining, of course. The story is what it is, and I know that Lord Braben wanted the aliens to be inscrutable and mysterious, and not something we would understand.
I just think that they succeeded a bit too well.
The Thargoids are inscrutable and mysterious, because they are boring as heck! I really don't care about them
I keep meaning to get back to the war, but there's always some player faction things to do that seem more important. And the things to do in the war effort get repetitive after a while.
Is that a Cobra with a ship kit?Found a - for me - really rare oxygen planet. Not only first foot, but also this codex entry: bacterium volu red.*
I know - it's grey, right?
There seem to be a lot of misconceptions about so called "hive minds"...
If they don't have a language, how do they communicate being attacked (for example) to their hive? Even with traits like telepathy, you need a common language, even if nobody except your species can hear it.
People often seem to think of hives funtioning like the Borg do, but that is far from how the hives I know work. This idea stems from a time when human scientists arrogantly dismissed the idea of any animal being able to think and had no idea of how communication really works.
I'd love to ramble on, but life gets in the way, I have to take off.
o7, Commanders.
Yes indeed.
I looked up the definition of "hive mind".
"The collective mental activity expressed in the complex, coordinated behavior of a colony of social insects (such as bees or ants) regarded as comparable to a single mind controlling the behavior of an individual organism"
Seems pretty loosely defined. There's nothing in there that requires language, only "complex, coordinated behavior of a colony of social insects."
So it seems fitting to apply to Thargoids.
For what it's worth.
Casual gardening and then found this:
I decamped the FC to Maia and thought I'd try out Exobiology. I've found some Luteolum Anemone and thought I'd been scanning it using the right mouse button, as the left mouse didn't seem to do anything. Turns out you've got to get REALLY close to use the left mouse.
Let's start again!
Let's start again!
I finally got some time off, those poor folks have a disaster unfolding in slow motion of biblical proportions. I guess the lake reforming was bigger than the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and with up to 400% snowpack in the Sierra's, a warm storm or hot summer can cause it (the lake) to swell. Anyway, I wont be able to play all weekend, gotta change crank case oil, work on wiring and lights, and swap some tires. You guys have fun!
Well, that description uses quite a few scientific sounding words to tell us: "Quite frankly, we don't have a f** 'n clue how these things coordinate their work."I looked up the definition of "hive mind".
"The collective mental activity expressed in the complex, coordinated behavior of a colony of social insects (such as bees or ants) regarded as comparable to a single mind controlling the behavior of an individual organism"
Seems pretty loosely defined. There's nothing in there that requires language, only "complex, coordinated behavior of a colony of social insects."
So it seems fitting to apply to Thargoids.
For what it's worth.
Sadly, I keep losing my train of thought over and over, at the moment.
Or better, seeral trains tend to converge to the same location from different angles...
Wow. That doesn't sound fun. Best of luck to you and who ever should need some.I finally got some time off, those poor folks have a disaster unfolding in slow motion of biblical proportions. I guess the lake reforming was bigger than the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and with up to 400% snowpack in the Sierra's, a warm storm or hot summer can cause it (the lake) to swell. Anyway, I wont be able to play all weekend, gotta change crank case oil, work on wiring and lights, and swap some tires. You guys have fun!
I'm having a tough time motivating my rear housing group to go outside and deal with my wiring, I'm not a big fan of it. My kids are much better at it than I am with all the lights and accessories they like putting on their trucks.
Btw, some of these farmers are very desperate to save their pistachio orchards, 98% of the US production comes from this region. He drove his Chevy Silverado and his Ford F-150 into a levee breach, I wonder if he'll file an insurance claim.
Its been a while but when you run into that ground CZ bug where the 'red and green win bar' (the one where it shows the remaining strength of each side) gets stuck, is there anyway to 'unstick' it? Or just farm till you get bored and bug out?
To say I'm speechless would be an euphemism.
You can still win in these situations * if you just keep killing the enemy and taking checkpoints - you just won't know when until you get the "there's only one enemy left" audio. If you do win, you,'ll have to call Uber rather than get the drop ship ** home.
* If, like me, you get irritated by this bug, you can opt to get yourself killed. You will be magically grabbed by the rescue rangers and dumped at your last dock point.
** If the drop ship is taking you away shouldn't it be called a "lift ship"?
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