Why should anyone be fighting Thargoids?

[AIKI_ZVEZDA]

Now, before you scream at me, the title is a rhetorical question, but i want to start a discussion, a pretty important one i think.

So let's be real... for one of the most dangerous activities in the game other than PVP, we're really not being rewarded anything for resisting the Thargoids.
I mean, they're pretty much the closest this game has to raid bosses.
Killing them alone is a serious feat, and even in a group, everyone does have to spend a lot of time & money outfitting and preparing.


And then you kill them! All that sweat and tears and likely multiple attempts for like... 2 million credits.
What's going on, how cheap is AEGIS and the superpowers to not make it worth our while? That's not a nice way to treat the elite combat pilots at all..

There's no missions or anything that's related to them either. Nobody really cares if you kill Thargoids, the combat bonds are very paltry and barely cover repair & rearm, and the combat zones themselves totally random, spawning not one but often TWO of these aforementioned raid bosses, and often not just the hard ones, but the really really really hard ones as well, making them pretty much impossible to complete for the vast majority of players.


I am sure people would agree it'd be completely essential for this whole part of the game to be redone in terms of rewards, because there aren't any.
I mean, you can say, "but it's so important to save lives!"
There are a million other ways to do that in this hellish galaxy, and every single other one of those actually pays you.

It really doesn't seem that hard to me to implement this... simply have local factions request a Thargoid Heart or something as proof of defeat, tissue samples for easier missions, or general weightless (and corrosionless) materials & thargoid data.
And at least for killing them, they REALLY should be giving fat stacks of credits & G5 materials. Like seriously, the first victory i ever had took several tries and ended with me at 3% hull.

This is not a joke FDev, please don't treat it like that!

 

[Arkadi]

Talking about rewards: killing scouts is one of the fastest ways to gain combat rank.
Delivering Thargoid bonds is one of the very few (only?) ways to gain PilotsFederation reputation.

Thinking about rewards, I would love if futre updates would give some reward for being allied to PilotsFederation, some special equipment, a badge, access to special missions, something like this.

 

[Strangepork]

Now, before you scream at me, the title is a rhetorical question, but i want to start a discussion, a pretty important one i think.

So let's be real... for one of the most dangerous activities in the game other than PVP, we're really not being rewarded anything for resisting the Thargoids.
I mean, they're pretty much the closest this game has to raid bosses.
Killing them alone is a serious feat, and even in a group, everyone does have to spend a lot of time & money outfitting and preparing.


And then you kill them! All that sweat and tears and likely multiple attempts for like... 2 million credits.
What's going on, how cheap is AEGIS and the superpowers to not make it worth our while? That's not a nice way to treat the elite combat pilots at all..

There's no missions or anything that's related to them either. Nobody really cares if you kill Thargoids, the combat bonds are very paltry and barely cover repair & rearm, and the combat zones themselves totally random, spawning not one but often TWO of these aforementioned raid bosses, and often not just the hard ones, but the really really really hard ones as well, making them pretty much impossible to complete for the vast majority of players.


I am sure people would agree it'd be completely essential for this whole part of the game to be redone in terms of rewards, because there aren't any.
I mean, you can say, "but it's so important to save lives!"
There are a million other ways to do that in this hellish galaxy, and every single other one of those actually pays you.

It really doesn't seem that hard to me to implement this... simply have local factions request a Thargoid Heart or something as proof of defeat, tissue samples for easier missions, or general weightless (and corrosionless) materials & thargoid data.
And at least for killing them, they REALLY should be giving fat stacks of credits & G5 materials. Like seriously, the first victory i ever had took several tries and ended with me at 3% hull.

This is not a joke FDev, please don't treat it like that!

They're a bit ugly.

 

[Knispels]

There are a lot of changes to Thargoid combat that a lot of players would like to see changed. And we are hoping that FDev listens to the community and implements some of these changes in the near future. The combat bonds paid out for the combat are small compared to the time you have to gather materials and engineer your ship for this type of combat. And the time it takes to take down some of the interceptors the bond is very small. A video I saw the other day the fight took 1 hour and 5 minutes to take down a Hydra in a Federal drop or gun ship. So yes it is something that a lot of players would like to changed in the game.

 

[JetsonRING]

I have been interdicted a dozen times by the larger flower-ships and have never been attacked so for role-playing, no reason at all.

As a practical matter though, destroying "Thargoid" scout ships is the quickest way through the awful grind that is . . . combat rank. Thanks to Thargoid scout ships I am Triple-E.

 

[Villeruff]

Why fight Thargoids? Because it's fun.

like... 2 million credits.

With a little practice and a decently outfitted ship, you can kill Cyclops in a few minutes with almost no risk. They go from 100% to the first dead heart in about 6 seconds if they start non hostile. It might be a hard fight for some, but as you said, these are raid bosses. You need 'end game' level gear.

 

[oflow]

There are kill thargoid combat missions at the Aegis ships. I've got them for both scouts and interceptors.

https://imgur.com/a/4Emobrs

Mission payout increases with rep so I imagine with allied rep they probably payout pretty well.

 

[IceFire122]

There are kill thargoid combat missions at the Aegis ships. I've got them for both scouts and interceptors.
Mission payout increases with rep so I imagine with allied rep they probably payout pretty well.

2 issues with that:
1. The rep is build up with local factions and has to be increase from neutral every week.
2. Aegis missions are sending CMDRs to systems all over the place. Missions into systems currently with Infestations/Incursion are rare. Missions/kills in other systems do not count against Infestation/Incursion.

Any CMDR investing regular time in AX combat should not care for these missions but concentrate on the tasks at hand.

 

[oflow]

2 issues with that:
1. The rep is build up with local factions and has to be increase from neutral every week.
2. Aegis missions are sending CMDRs to systems all over the place. Missions into systems currently with Infestations/Incursion are rare. Missions/kills in other systems do not count against Infestation/Incursion.

Any CMDR investing regular time in AX combat should not care for these missions but concentrate on the tasks at hand.

I understand how it works and already knew this.
My post was in response to the OP saying theres no missions for thargoids.

I care about the missions for the rep and the money as well. You know you can do both right?

 

[IceFire122]

I care about the missions for the rep and the money as well. You know you can do both right?

Sure, you can, but I would prefer a AXCZ massacre mission increasing the effective earnings in an Incursion system.

 

[oflow]

Sure, you can, but I would prefer a AXCZ massacre mission increasing the effective earnings in an Incursion system.

I agree. But its also possible at some point down the line you might need that rep to access something. Which is why I do both. Not to mention, the incursions/infestations have been getting cleared out pretty quickly so doing the random missions just beats going to random NHSS when everything's clear. And its also possible Frontier might slip some surprise into these missions that hasnt been seen before, which is another reason I do them.

They send you to random systems, but maybe theres a connections between the missions and future infestations/incursions?

 

[ZAKALWEINC8876]

Fighting Thargoids has made me learn how to use fixed weapons to a reasonable level. Which is extremely handy overall.

I agree they are too optional though, even if they do hyperdict you.
Yesterday i had killed a cyclops, scooped the heart, then got grabbed out of hyperspace on the next jump.

“Uh oh” i thought, “still i have a field neutraliser, should be fine”...
But i misstimed it and got caught, at this point i was getting a bit worried...

By the time my power came on they had both waked out, didnt even scan me, or my Thargoid heart cargo!

They should be all over you if you have a heart aboard, surely??

o7

 

[William J Smith]

Why fight them?

Because they started it.

I was there,I saw what they did and by god I'll take down any god damn bug that gets in my gunsights

And this should be our battle cry

REMEMBER THE ORACLE !


William J Smith, Cmdr of the Federal corvette "The B Buff"

 

[Eugee]

I really want to get into the AX-Combat side of things. This previous weekend I took my Krait Mk2 over to the M-name system that was under attack, with the intent of trying the AX-CZs.

There was a megaship there, which I made my base of operations.

First thing, there was no Crew Lounge, so I couldn't get my NPC pilot. Got all of my AX/Guardian modules transferring over from Shinrarta, then went to the outpost--which also had no crew lounge. Finally I landed on a planetary settlement that had a crew lounge and got my pilot. I went into the first AX-CZ and killed a bunch of scouts, then got tore up trying to fight an interceptor with a bunch of scouts joining in.

Went back for repairs, swapped over to a full AX-MC loadout, and mauled scouts in the AX-CZ some more. Messed around with an interceptor with the aid of a bunch of NPC ships, but without a scan to let me lock onto the hearts, it was pretty random with the AX-multis. Went back to the mega ship and changed back to 2 AX-MC, 2 Gauss, and 1 Flak. I absently check the mission board and see anti-thargoid missions! What!? I didn't know these existed!

I immediately take a massacre scout, and massacre cyclops mission, and jump over to the cyclops first. Head for the mission USS as one of my friends logs into our PG and I have him join. He can either fly a fighter or man the multi-cannons, so this will be great!

Drop in... nothing there. Just green mist and a bunch of wrecks. Leave and drop in again, nothing. The USS moves a little each time. After 4 drop-ins he goes back to exploring and I'm googling. It says to log to main menu. Okay so I relog, re-invite my buddy to the crew, and drop in. It crashes him out of the game. Wonderful. However there's a cyclops, so I kill it (only my second solo, and I made some mistakes, but I dealt with the swarm much better than last time). I then set out for the next system, to massacre the scouts.

Buddy hops in multi-crew, and we drop in. Nothing. Just a sensor. We wait for awhile, maybe they spawn in. NOpe.

Relog. Nothing. Relog again. Nothing. Cruise and drop in like 5 times. Every time it's just a sensor, which I blow up each time.

Back to Google: Oh, these never work for like anyone. 20 page thread complaining about it SIX MONTHS AGO.

Are you kidding me? How is this not fixed? Okay, so I drop the mission and head back to the M-name system, I'll just do AX-CZs for a while, I was having fun with that.

Take down an interceptor in the AX-CZ! Get blown up pushing my luck to take down a second one. Increment my ship-ID to C-PX-4 (been exploded 3 times now), and go back out to take on more thargoids. Curse halfway to the CZ when I realize my master NPC crewman is dead, and I have to land on a planet to get another one started. it.

Drop back into the AX-CZ and just start murdering scouts, staying close to the pack of npc ships, trying to coordinate my fire with them. Keep watching the bar fill up, excited that I'm going to finish this one finally. Bar fills up. Keep killing scouts. Bars full. Has to be full. Keep killing scouts. What the man it's been full for like 20 scouts.

Run out of gauss ammo. It's okay, I've still got the AX-multi's and that bar is so full.

Run out of limpets and can't synthesize more. Well, I'll fight till the caustic gets too bad for me.

Run out of AX-multi ammo. You've got to be kidding me. The AX-CZ *still* hasn't completed. This is bugged too?

Cruise back to the megaship, re-arm/reload, and turn in the bonds for SIXTY-ONE scouts. You know what? off FDEV. What a circle-jerk of buggy . Went back to Shinrarta and started exploring, at least that part of the game WORKS.

How can they up Thargoids so badly? Why is it still buggy and for over a year?

 

[Oaktree]

Yep, this Thargoid content sure needs lot of improvement... But you cant deny that you had some fun! That's what this content does for me. Fun fighting Thargoids and the desire to keep improving.

And you were lucky. You found a mission! I also use the AEGIS megaships as bases, and I always search the mission board for thargoid missions and since 3.3 i've never found one. You talked about PG, I'm always in Open, so I'll try a PG.
And yes, AEGIS megaships are still run by idiots, but at least since 3.3 they're in the right system! Yay!

The AX CZs sometimes get bugged, and they only spawn scouts, which is not bad, but you wont get any final bonus rewards with the exception of the first 100k for clearing the first wave.
But the final bonus reward exists according to other players, but the interceptor duo needs to be killed. Not an easy feat!

 

[Slange Lands]

Unfortunately, the USS sites for the Aegis missions are buggy, especially for the larger flowers, but you can find them with patience.

However, I find the Interceptors to be just a hoot to kill. The other NPCs are so banal now. I just love killing flowers, I love how they look, I love how they moan and the other silly noises they make, I love the heart mechanic and I love the tenacity and stupid boogerness of the thargons. If you go to the Pleiades around Maia like HR 1183 there are tons of USSes which you can choose from. Perfecting my aim with the Gauss is fun, too!

 

[annihilator_bg]

Rewards in this game make no sense. Many players would say that credits can be removed from the game. As you can easily earn 100M in an hour. And if you play for credits you can get everything you need in a day or two. Then you just go and buy whatever you want. And killing Thargoid scouts for 10K is a joke. I hope that FDev would reconsider the reward mechanics in 2019. Something they should have done years ago.

 

[Zieman]

I hope that FDev would reconsider the reward mechanics in 2019.

Something like killing Thargoids gives materials you need in engineering your ship to kill thargoids?

 

[Myspace Kaitsu80]

Thargoid attacks against stations should be made like Community Goals, where reaching certain levels of "Tier´s" (through killing Thargoids eventually decides how much damage station will have at the end of the attack.


(from suggestiion forum: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/476370-Thargoids-should-appear-with-a-notice-in-local-mission-board-like-CG´s-now-galaxy-wide-for-defence )

Thargoid attacks against stations and other installations sould be predicted beforehand "through new top secret technological advances", and be spotted say 7-14 days before they start/finish allowing to organize defending better against them.

Could be just locally on top of a mission board like CG´s now are to enlist in a system.
So like it is enlisting galaxy wide now (and for the lore this idea is free to be used also with the rest-
Say we predict attacks soon maybe by spotting their probe appearing cloaked in some system and then starting to reload for a creation of a wormhole they will eventuallly come through there exactly in 7 days, giving time to rally defences for the station and epic battles outside them, naturally also visible timer somewhere like through scanning probe would be very nice.

If following CG´s model, there would be certain amount of Thargoids that need to be killed after/during that 7 (?) day´s warning/attack before/when they appear, say in a day (tick) or in about a week (modification of a war state now or new kind of a "long tick"), (even) alone or in a group.
So Thargoids attacking could be repelled in a single huge battle-effort, or during a longer campaingn (to help smaller groups that have difficulties to gather needed defences for one/some certain time(s).

Amount of Thargoids appearing needed to be killed would be fixed for that certain period (also, number/quality of Thargoids and how long those attacks last could vary a lot per system and station/installation), and from each CMDR(s) killed Thargoid there would be an increase in a hidden pool for points that calculate if station survives or gets damaged/destroyed during that period of a attack (possibility for big differences on attacks depending on size/importance of the station/system, also).

Also, if system has a Cap ship in it, that should appear to defend any attacked station with CMDR´s, even if that NPC-ship would eventually end up in pieces and never show up in system from therefore, where amount of Cap ships available for the defence of stations becomes crucial).

And for most of all, pay well for those doing the dirty work navies should be doing to make it feel not just worthwhile, but also more realistic and immersive... I doubt credits would have a low limit in fighting against real alien invasion...
Combine that with well paying, working and fun war system against Thargoids that is simple enough to understand (and does not just act as a post-attack "repair grind", like now), and Thargoids will have players attention. Especially if they go after their stuff.

 

[GTwannabe]

None, given the stupid arbitrary 4 experimental weapon limit per ship.