When the Thargoids become Targetoids

[Aidan Brooder]

First of all, great job on the looks and feel of the Thargoids.
They were amazing and mysterious. And a joy to watch.

And for a short while they felt like a passive threat. And then you went on too hasty. At least for my taste.

I mean, 2.4 got out on the 26th. Today is the 29th and instead of discussion on the mystery of the Thargoids all we have is discussions on what ship fit to kill them with best. And why we can't take them down solo in a Sidewinder. Not even three days?

It feels like if Agent Cooper went into Twin Peaks, had a quick coffee and then went straight ahead to arrest Leland.
A chance for a great storyline missed, I'd say.

"Dudes, Thargoids appear everywhere." - "Our weapons don't work." - "No worries, just throw a ton of resources at AEGIS."

*one day later* "Guys, we just mass-produced these missiles and scanners over night & sent them to all the usual discounters. We suggest our sponsor Guns R'Us. Happy hunting. GG!"

How about the first community goal would have been to find out more about the Thargoids? To perhaps find a way to shortly disrupt their jammers, allowing them to be scanned. Sending the data back. Have other ships investigate Thargoid ruins and crashed ships for more information.

At the same time start to slowly escalate the situation. So that we actually feel some kind of pressure.

Have AEGIS frantically try to research weapons. Turn out a few that are not up for the job, but look promising.
Have Explorers scout out the regions with suspected Thargoid bases. Have haulers deliver goods to support the actual building process.
Have fighters fight against all odds to save a station.

Now all you can do is throw bigger Thargoid ships out. And that will get old pretty soon. And even if you have the main invasion force show up soon, it is still a missed chance.

All the Thargoids are now is Targetoids. Fancy targets. I mean, the missiles already have the nickname "bug sprayer".
It really sums up what people now think of this enigmatic race - or rather races.

I had to work harder to get to a point to get them down when I played the original Elite.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[shadragon]

I suspect when they come after us, things will be different with the odds firmly on their side.

 

[Aidan Brooder]

I suspect when they come after us, things will be different with the odds firmly on their side.

I hope so, but they spend a lot of time to develop encounters like the Thargoids. For all that development effort, three days after they appear, doing pretty much not a lot.
OK, they scrapped some battleships that tried to toast them.

Three days and currently they are nothing like big flowery targets. I'd assume it took a lot more to make them than three days.
Hell, people who can only play over weekends didn't even get time to take part in the weapons research. (Which was laughable... One step? Over night supply to everywhere? Really?)

We'll see, but my hopes for a cool story that's not 100% pew pew are pretty low atm.

 

[Drelthar]

I disagree.

Personally, I would like new things to turn up every week. A new piece of tech, and a new thargoid. We get the tech to JUST harm/kill the last kind, and a new one arrives which is almost impossible to kill, we develop new tech next week, and a new one arrives which out classes that.

This would be interesting.

I got pretty bored of the Thargoid USS's where you could either scoop stuff, drop stuff, or shoot at invulnerable things, pretty quickly. And I think it's fair to get bored of that fast, there wasn't that much to it.

New stuff every week please.

I hope so, but they spend a lot of time to develop encounters like the Thargoids. For all that development effort, three days after they appear, doing pretty much not a lot.
OK, they scrapped some battleships that tried to toast them.

Three days and currently they are nothing like big flowery targets. I'd assume it took a lot more to make them than three days.
Hell, people who can only play over weekends didn't even get time to take part in the weapons research. (Which was laughable... One step? Over night supply to everywhere? Really?)

We'll see, but my hopes for a cool story that's not 100% pew pew are pretty low atm.

The weapon/scanner was being developed BEFORE 2.4 dropped. It was excellent timing on FD's part if you ask me.


So long as they are also adding in various listening posts, surface sites (new types, with new interactions) and various other scenarios (battles that are already under way when you get there please!) then we are golden.

 

[Aidan Brooder]

I disagree.

Personally, I would like new things to turn up every week. A new piece of tech, and a new thargoid. We get the tech to JUST harm/kill the last kind, and a new one arrives which is almost impossible to kill, we develop new tech next week, and a new one arrives which out classes that.

This would be interesting.

I got pretty bored of the Thargoid USS's where you could either scoop stuff, drop stuff, or shoot at invulnerable things, pretty quickly. And I think it's fair to get bored of that fast, there wasn't that much to it.

New stuff every week please.

That's a matter of taste. Yours is valid, mine is valid. We must agree to disagree.

For me the reason why it got boring was not that I could not kill them. The reason was that they gave us nothing to do.
"Here are your weapons, start the slugfest!" wasn't the only option they had.

You can have a new Thargoid and bigger guns every week, but how is that not boring? You just shoot another target and you essentially did nothing the least creative to get to the point where you were able to do this to the enemy.

It was hasty and rushed. Three days semi-excitement that could have lasted quite a bit longer, if they had involved the players more.

 

[Schlack]

The suspicion is that this is a taster, a tease. The Tharies we see now may be their equivalent of sidewinders.

 

[Aidan Brooder]

The suspicion is that this is a taster, a tease. The Tharies we see now may be their equivalent of sidewinders.

I sure hope that's the case. And I suspect the same. But that is not my point.

See, they can drop the mother-of-all ships from witchspace. If the solution is: Here are new guns, now shoot that thing. There will never be any real suspense.
Look at the forums. There are not even that many people interested in the Thargoids. It's business as usual and some guys shot a flower.

They must turn up the suspense. Easy wins are easily forgotten.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I sure hope that's the case. And I suspect the same. But that is not my point.

See, they can drop the mother-of-all ships from witchspace. If the solution is: Here are new guns, now shoot that thing. There will never be any real suspense.
Look at the forums. There are not even that many people interested in the Thargoids. It's business as usual and some guys shot a flower.

They must turn up the suspense. Easy wins are easily forgotten.

You must have been looking at wrong forum then, because all of Thargoid posts get moved to Alien subforum. And it is buzzing with life.

 

[Ian Skippy]

I sure hope that's the case. And I suspect the same. But that is not my point.

See, they can drop the mother-of-all ships from witchspace. If the solution is: Here are new guns, now shoot that thing. There will never be any real suspense.
Look at the forums. There are not even that many people interested in the Thargoids. It's business as usual and some guys shot a flower.

They must turn up the suspense. Easy wins are easily forgotten.

13000 ships at Merope in the last 24h alone. I'd say there is a fair amount of interest. Sure, you may like this or that, and others were burning the forums down on launch because there weren't weapons. Everyone says that their preference is more creative, and that whatever they dont like is the lazy thing to do.

Ah well.

 

[Schlack]

They must turn up the suspense. Easy wins are easily forgotten.

Perhaps FD are lulling us into a false sense of security. Thargoids? Pah, easy. , wait, what's that . holy shiiiiip

 

[Aidan Brooder]

13000 ships at Merope in the last 24h alone. I'd say there is a fair amount of interest. Sure, you may like this or that, and others were burning the forums down on launch because there weren't weapons. Everyone says that their preference is more creative, and that whatever they dont like is the lazy thing to do.

Ah well.

Hate to quote myself, but: That's a matter of taste. Yours is valid, mine is valid. We must agree to disagree.

I'm obviously not God, so I'm posting my opinion, just like you do yours. I don't say yours is wrong.

These are the first two days after launch. Of course everyone wants to see a Thargoid. I predict it will get old quickly.

 

[Muzz UK]

Needs group missions and group content otherwise for me they'll end up being the same as pirate or trader NPC's just with different skins and animations!

 

[Lobey]

Yay, the best pilots in the best ships took out an alien sidewinder, that'll teach em

 

[Aidan Brooder]

Perhaps FD are lulling us into a false sense of security. Thargoids? Pah, easy. , wait, what's that . holy shiiiiip

We'll see. As said, I don't believe either this is all we saw of the Thargoids. I better get out there in space and look for those "mysterious places" added.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Hate to quote myself, but: That's a matter of taste. Yours is valid, mine is valid. We must agree to disagree.

I'm obviously not God, so I'm posting my opinion, just like you do yours. I don't say yours is wrong.

These are the first two days after launch. Of course everyone wants to see a Thargoid. I predict it will get old quickly.

It gets quickly only for people who obsess and play ED religiously. For casual players who are majority of people playing it seeing one will be a well celebration. Taking one down will be once a month event.

Devs can't crank out infinite content. It just does not happen that way.

 

[Aidan Brooder]

Devs can't crank out infinite content. It just does not happen that way.

Exactly. That is why they should use the limited amount of content they can create and stretch it's use.
They could have build a whole story through clever use of Community Goals around finding out how to harm these... Thargoid Sidewinders.
Now they are just spawning target practice for pimped ships. After two and a half days.

 

[n34257]

They must turn up the suspense. Easy wins are easily forgotten.

This has been building for nearly three years. How much more, exactly, would count as an appropriate amount of suspense??? Much more than that and it'd basically be vapourware (or Star Citizen).

 

[Surprised Brony]

Somewhere in a evil lair Frontier, but especially MoM, is laughing with popcorn in hand at all of these threads. We're going to miss the days of Cyclops ganking. Mark my words...

*steps into the shadows*

 

[GSRTrent]

I'm happy with the way things unfolded. FDev did a great job. Just wait until the larger Thargoid ships come after us.

 

[Rankaze]

Seriously, I think a lot of folks have no grasp of the scale here.

The Thargoids have wrecked entire battle fleets. Including capital ships. If you think a single Interceptor did that... it's completely implausible.

What we are seeing here is the tip of the iceberg. That lone Interceptor is just the one they left to mop up when they were done. There are many, many more of them out there, and I would bet on much bigger ones as well.

And here we are desperately scrambling for the tech to take on just these lone Interceptors.

More weapons and armor and such will come. Eventually most of us will be equipped to take on a lone Interceptor. And that is when we will start to see the real terrors the Thargoids have waiting for us.

There will be challenge enough for all. And a story to go with it, I expect.

As for peace and negotiation and such... do you really think the Thargoids take us seriously enough, right now, to bother? They see us as a nuisance. As gnats to be ignored, or swatted when we get too annoying. We will have to demonstrate to them that we are not so easily dismissed before the idea of actually talking to us ever crosses their minds.

Once we do that, it will. They have a Civil War, after all. If we prove ourselves to be formidable, one side or the other will approach us for aid. I'd be wary of that offer, though... I'd expect them to want to use us as cannon fodder at first.

If the Thargoids didn't want conflict, it wouldn't happen. Their hyperspace capabilities are so far superior to ours, they could do whatever they want and avoid contact at will. How long have they been doing just that? They are fighting us now because they believe they have something to gain by it. We will have to disabuse them of that notion first.