Elite: General talk
08 Dec 2022, 7:09pm
EpisparhSwingFishoh my, "Inara" is going down ...
Thargoid controlled... Artie, you can close RP section
We are not getting it back any soon with the current BS delivered by Frontier.
Yeah.... that complicates things a bit...
09 Dec 2022, 10:43am
Unlike what FDev promised - that the Thargoid invasion is controlled by "AI" while FDev is taking their hands off the wheel - they're still very much needing to tweak and re-balance things with their hands firmly attached to said wheel. This means that until they decide it's time to turn the tide, players will not really make much of a dent. Which, with the current idiotic weekly wipe mechanic, will likely make players turn their back towards the war. So in response to that, FDev have to tweak things even further to motivate remaining players to continue engaging with it.
At some point, engineered weapons/modules will be introduced (again, this is 100% in FDev's control, possibly only as part of the next update, which could well be half a year away).
As the Maelstrom cloud introduced new mats that need to be gathered by ship, I presume those weapons will be for ships only; simply because FDev kept the engineering for ships and on-foot gear 100% separated. Even though we already have plenty of choice to kill Thargoids with (all the basic weaponry, the Salvation stuff and now additional variations of existing ship weapons). So this suggests to me this new engineer grind is to make progress with 'unlocking' whatever bits regarding the Maelstrom cloud (a ship based environment) only.
What does that mean for on-foot Thargoid content? It could happen (much) further down the line, or not at all.
I was skeptical about their AI announcement, but wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Seems this war is taking the worst parts of both Power Play and your regular CGs. Repetitive, unrewarding activities with the main goal to make players keep logging into the hamsterwheel on a weekly basis.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
PS - one funny/sad suggestion I read elswhere is what if any future on-foot AX engineering requires a free mod slot on your suits/weapons? I've fully G5'd each suit and weapon and used up all mod slots (and now I have no real scenario to use them on, other than repetitive ground CZs unrelated to the current main storyline), and I'm truly done with this engineering grind, never again. I really wouldn't put it past FDev to go down this road... if we ever actually get ground AX gameplay added that is.
09 Dec 2022, 3:01pm
1.5M risk-free credits for scanning a bacterial strain three times. That's almost like printing money! Makes it a lot easier to pay for carrier upkeep while out in the black, I guess. Which may soon become important after the bugs have swallowed the bubble and turned us into carrier-dwelling nomads.
09 Dec 2022, 3:29pm
P.S. I also have a Corvette for mining and fighting, any suggestions on outfitting and engineering.?
09 Dec 2022, 3:29pm
Broken Messif we ever actually get ground AX gameplay added that is.
I think we will, but maybe not the way most people would expect. FDev recently kept mentioning that the Thargoids aggressively collect occupied escape pods as if they were the hottest snack since meta-alloy.
How do you avoid the potential goofiness of a tentacled alien foot soldier that doesn't crawl along walls and ceilings like H.R. Giger's dildo-headed xenomorph? By making the alien foot soldier look like a human being, augmented with alien tech. Still scary, but much easier for the art department to pull off. All the settlement interiors and doors automatically fit, mocap files can be reused, pathfinding and A.I. can remain unchanged. Why would the Thargoids get their tentacles dirty if they can just send our captured brothers and sisters back to us as mind-controlled drones?
09 Dec 2022, 4:06pm
Yuna SakashiroBroken Messif we ever actually get ground AX gameplay added that is.
I think we will, but maybe not the way most people would expect. FDev recently kept mentioning that the Thargoids aggressively collect occupied escape pods as if they were the hottest snack since meta-alloy.
How do you avoid the potential goofiness of a tentacled alien foot soldier that doesn't crawl along walls and ceilings like H.R. Giger's dildo-headed xenomorph? By making the alien foot soldier look like a human being, augmented with alien tech. Still scary, but much easier for the art department to pull off. All the settlement interiors and doors automatically fit, mocap files can be reused, pathfinding and A.I. can remain unchanged. Why would the Thargoids get their tentacles dirty if they can just send our captured brothers and sisters back to us as mind-controlled drones?
Or they just replace the humanoid models with walking xenos (however many legs they may end up having), maybe tweak the odd walking/running animation and call it a day - added bonus might be a new on-foot map (i.e. Thargoid cave/building/whatever) instead of existing settlements - although settlements would align with their copy/paste approach of late... those on-foot fire effects they re-used 1:1 for stations are a good example of that.
What does make me question whether we ever get AX ground combat is that I would've expected that first as part of the build up of the war, before they introduce ship stuff like they did now (though I can understand why from a player engagement perspective) - and honestly, it's been 1.5 years of Odyssey content being virtually unchanged, but now that we have the big bad ships being the focus of the Tharg invasion force, later reducing it to on-foot combat seems anticlimatic to me unless the centre of the Maelstrom's features and on-foot environment (wishful thinking here) and the on-foot combat serves as a 'final level' to destroy them (don't ask me how that could work in Elite's MMO environment).
So yeah, probably humanoid Thargzombies are what they'd go for.
Not sure I still have the patience to wait for that though, and it'll likely be as lukewarm as the rest of Odyssey content anyways.
09 Dec 2022, 8:21pm
DescartesI want a carrier, what's the quickest way to get one.
P.S. I also have a Corvette for mining and fighting, any suggestions on outfitting and engineering.?
Robigo Run.
09 Dec 2022, 8:38pm
DescartesI want a carrier, what's the quickest way to get one.
P.S. I also have a Corvette for mining and fighting, any suggestions on outfitting and engineering.?
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Right now, the best way to maximize revenue is either trading, (large ship: Cutter, Type 9, etc), or Exobiology. With the new buffs to Exo, I have earned close to 1 Billion a run in a couple hours, all within 100 Ly of the bubble. So extreme long distance travel is unnecessary.
10 Dec 2022, 2:19am
10 Dec 2022, 5:04am
A rich tourist wants to be taken to a rescue ship. Except he's not coming from a system under attack by Thargoids but from Eurybia.
But he's paying generously, so who am I to judge?
However, this made me curious: Are there rich tourists waiting for me in systems under attack? Maybe they pay even more generously.
So I went to HIP 20916. Three Thargoid interdictions and 10 Cr of hull damage later, I dock at Davidson Platform, but...
...nothing to do for me here. 
10 Dec 2022, 5:13am
the people should be comfortable on board,
but I need to go and bring more evacs,
so Fdev, can you fix this please