Thargoid war progress and thoughts.
03 Apr 2023Foxtrot Echo One
One thing I have learned about the Thargoids is that they are relentless. No matter how many we dispatch, more just keep on coming.I have learned much about their mechanics however, and I am using that to our advantage. The Thargoids follow a particular pattern of assault, retreat, reload and assault. Their shields also regenerate fairly quickly, so getting them to show their hearts and taking them one at a time seems to be the best way for lesser geared pilots.
I have seen the ways to circumvent some of their mechanics. I have made adjustments to my original ship, the Xenocaust, and I have a team working on my next iteration called the Xeno-Reaper. I've had some success with Xenocaust as a medium sized ship. I added an additional AX Enhanced shard cannon, and took off one laser. As it turns out, the DPS of a laser is no match for a shard cannon. I can dispatch up to a cyclops with relative ease and minimal repairs. I have killed a Basilisk variant, but they are much tougher and require you to walk through the hearts to get them to their end. The new ship will employ 6 AX Shard Cannons and two small lasers to help with heat, but I am positive this will increase my DPS and kill count significantly.
It would seem as though we are still losing the war. My calls to AEGIS for help in tracking the Orthrus have gone unanswered. I don't know what is happening right now, as they have been fairly silent on this matter. It seems the Thargoids have changed tactics a little bit so that unpopulated systems are less likely to be invaded. This has helped a little, but in the grand scheme of things I don't think the Superpowers truly grasp what is happening in the galaxy.
There was this phrase I used back the olden days to tell people to think like the folks you want to encourage. A lot of people in the Milky Way are not fighters by trade. Looking out into the galaxy you will find more traders, miners, explorers, and exobiologists. Fighting for a cause, like getting a special weapon or armor can get people's attention for awhile, but what you really need is a way to motivate those that do like to fight for a cause. If it also attracts others even for the "special" prize, then that works as well.
The way the Orthrus hides is only to serve the purpose that we were never intended to find it. I am sure a few people have in the past, but the Orthrus was also designed to evade combat. To even search for this elusive variant, you must scan a Nav Beacon in a system that AEGIS has provided as "Alert", go into supercruise, and search for suitable targets. Once a target is located, you have a set amount of time to approach the target and then drop from supercruise to see what may or may not be going on there. Once in that signal source, you have to interact with the cargo to get the Thargoids attention. This is difficult for combat pilots as they may not even have cargo. I don't really know if shooting the cargo would have an effect, but if you don't have cargo, you can wait for a rescue ship to come and interact with the cargo.
The issue here is the the whole time you are waiting for this process, the timer keeps running. It's also very likely that even if you find the proper "Thargoid" signal source, that it will be incredibly far away making your time to engage with the Orthrus even more limited. There is no guarantee, even if your cards are all played perfectly that the Orthrus will show up, and also likely that the variant will simply bug out and leave you hanging with nothing but undeployed bullets.
So, when I say "Know your audience" I am talking about those that you want to join your adventure. Combat Pilots are not hunters. We know how to hunt, but tactical units like AXE are the type to know where the war is, and go fight it. Searching for something to fight for hours on end is not preferable to us. It is also unknown as to how many Orthrus variants must be extinguished to ensure a system won't be invaded. Making it even less likely that Combat Pilots will be interested.
Let's be honest, many people are already billionaires out flying their brightly painted space ships out in the galaxy. Money isn't a big deal to most pilots that I have seen so far. Those pilots with less money are more likely to get those credits, Let's face facts, war is more profitable than prevention. It actually serves combat pilots more that we keep fighting in invaded systems because that's where the money and high-level materials are that we need to engineer in the galaxy.
I am happy to see that we are making a small amount of progress in the Thargoid war, I just hope that the Superpowers help make things more appealing to those of us that live for shooting Thargoids to pieces. Those green explosions never get old.
Foxtrot Echo One... Out.